


Being a Stark isn't the easiest thing, but people will help you along and make the ride easier

by DisneyBroadway123



Category: Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: Because I couldn't make Tony Stark a daughter without putting my love for animation in here, Multi, My favorite voice actors will all be here, Parent Tony Stark, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Voice Acting, animal adoption
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-01
Updated: 2019-03-07
Packaged: 2019-09-04 21:58:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 219,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16797847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DisneyBroadway123/pseuds/DisneyBroadway123
Summary: Abigail Stark, adopted daughter of Anthony Edward Stark loves her father more than anything in the world. She knew since she was a little girl what her place in life would be, taking over Stark Industry's and making her father proud. She has friends, one that she is in love with, and multiple who are older than she is that love her like another daughter that will help her through the rough patches that happen when Tony gets abducted. These friends will help her discover what she actually wants to do with her life and it's not what she would expect.





	1. Chapter one

_My name is Abigail Stark and I’m the daughter of the infamous weapons creator Tony Stark. A lot of people assume that I was born through a one night stand and I hate that’s what they assume. I was actually adopted by Tony himself when I was four years old and he used to have the time to come to the local orphanage to see me. At four years old I was already considered a child prodigy and able to read complicated adult books and maybe that’s why he was originally interested in me. After he adopted me he changed my name to Abigail which I actually prefer now that I’m older because he gave it to me and I really love and respect my dad. I zoomed through school practically not really caring about making many friends since I knew that they would never stick around long enough for me to get used to them. I did make two friends throughout my childhood years that I’m still kind of close with, Katie and Jeremy. Things have been awkward though since I got back from college earlier on in the in summer. I guess college made me think since I made two other friends who I ultimately loved even more than my other friends, Mimi and Vicky. They both changed my life by showing me Supernatural, Doctor Who and Sherlock, shows that I used to swear that I would never watch back when I was just best friends with Katie and Jeremy. Once I got home, my dad had a surprise waiting for me in his garage, a used 67’ Chevy Impala, the same car that Dean drives in Supernatural. Katie and Jeremy probably thought I’d lost my mind and that’s why things were so different between us. I fixed up the Impala taking most of the entire summer and now it was early August and the car has been perfect for around an entire week. My dad is my second best friend, right behind Mimi and Vicky even though he teases me that he should be number one and not behind two nerds. I think that’s kind of hypocritical since he’s watched up to season five of Supernatural and most of Doctor Who and Sherlock with me already until he got really busy with work last month. He has to go to Afghanistan tomorrow and I’m really scared. I guess it’s part of my Aspergers and my anxiety that I already have had mostly all my life since my dad got me professionally tested almost ten years ago now. Having Aspergers does make me feel different but it also makes me proud that I can call myself different and unique from everybody else. I can love more adult nerdy shows like the already mentioned Supernatural, but I also really love Sesame Street and my favorite muppet from there I actually have a really big plushie of that goes with me for every sleepover, Abby Cadabby the little fairy. It’s really childish but I feel like I have right to be childish with my family and they don’t mind. Katie’s always kind of hated that I won’t ever get rid of Abby so I bring her to every sleepover just to make her agitated._ _This is the story of the longest three months of my entire life when I realized that my love from my best friend wasn't at all true but at the same time I learned about real love and how much that can mean to a person._ I looked all around the house for my dad but couldn't find him anywhere when I heard the buzz from my phone groaning when I saw that it was a text from Katie.

_Katie: Sleepover. You. Me. Chick Flicks. No take backs. And leave the stuffed animals at home for the love of fucking god. And don't drive your hideous car that belongs in a museum._

_Me: Got it. I'll see what I can do. I have to talk to my dad first, he leaves early tomorrow and I might miss him if I go over to your house._

"Jarvis? Where's my dad and Pepper?" I asked the AI friend that my dad had created when I first got here around fourteen years ago almost since my birthday is in a few weeks.

 _"Your father is in the garage working on his latest invention. He should be getting ready for the ceremony but you know your father. I believe that Miss Potts is on her way over here to go with him."_ I smiled to myself knowing that the AI was more often than not right.

"Thanks Jarv, it appears that I have a date with Katie. Man call me when she doesn't need me anymore." I groaned as I went up the stairs to my dad's room. Three years ago Katie was fine, great even, sure she hated my Abby but she never insulted her directly until I got back from college earlier on in May.

 _"Have you ever considered telling her that you don't want to hangout with her anymore? I'm just trying to help Miss Stark."_ I sighed and sat down at the edge of the stairs hanging my head in my hands.

"I miss Mimi and Vicky Jarvis, they didn't judge me at all. I could talk like how I wanted to talk. I could make the references that I wanted to and they didn't judge my love for Abby Cadabby, in fact they hugged her just as often as I did. They called her my good luck plushie." I smiled softly at the memory opening up my phone so that I could see my cell phone wallpaper which was my two best friends that were still at MIT. I missed them so much and they taught me so much about myself.

 _"Would you like for me to send them an email telling them as such Miss Stark?"_ I nodded my head smiling to myself that Jarvis cared so much for me and how I reacted to every situation.

"Yeah that would be awesome thanks Jarvis, can you also tell them that I fixed up the Impala? Come to think of it, I'll just take my laptop with me and email them myself. Knowing Katie, it's just going to be me and her but Ronnie, Lettie and Mika. I'll be practically nonexistent so I'll just spend my time emailing them and texting Jeremy." I explained to the AI as I could hear him humming on the other end of the line in understanding. I climbed down the stairs going into the basement and using the unlocking code. My dad looked up at me concerned for the way that I was stomping into the first seat that I saw.

"What's wrong pumpkin?" I flopped down onto the chair and put my head in my hands.

"Katie has another sleepover planned, no backing out. She told me so. Sorry dad." My dad and I had plans for the afternoon at the very least to watch Supernatural because he wanted to hang out before he left and it was middle of the afternoon.

"What rules has she laid out for you this time?" He asked me scooting his chair over so that he could direct his attention to me.

"Let's see, my Abby doll has to stay here at home so I'm probably going to have nightmares without her around. I can't take the Impala and obviously I can't say anything too geeky or nerdy or she'll be humiliated and than I'm back to the silent treatment. Is it okay to miss Mimi and Vicky? With them there was no rules, no deals, I could just be myself." I felt tears start to stain my eyes that I quickly wiped away and looked down at my feet.

"I'm so sorry princess, you shouldn't have to deal with that. Why haven't you just told her to fuck off yet?" He asked me putting an arm around my shoulders comfortably.

"It's in my nature to do such a thing to her, I can't do it. Maybe if I had Vicky to back me up because she's so much more strong than I am but just me alone, I'm a mouse." My dad looked at me with sympathy towards my situation but also hard anger that I figured was meant for Katie.

"Listen to me Abigail, look up at me princess, come on." I looked up at my dad seeing the warmth in his honey brown eyes that was only used for me and Pepper.

"I know that things seem really bad right now and I can't tell you what happened to her while you were away in college. I should have stopped you from being friends with her all those years ago if this would have been the result. You shouldn't hang around her anymore if this is the way that she makes you feel. Friends don't have rules that must be followed like she and Jeremy do and I know that you love Jeremy but you have to know that he's just as bad as she is and they are probably having sex behind your back. I'm sorry but when they were here for your graduation party the tension could be cut with a knife and served with the cake." I wanted to hide my snicker because I knew that he was most likely right but I loved him more than anything. Besides every time that I hung out alone with Jeremy he would be constantly on his phone or complaining about how he didn't make captain of the football team something that to me didn't even really matter.

"You're right dad, besides I hardly love him anymore. It wouldn't surprise me at all. It would certainly scar me for life if I found out what they were doing but I love the old Jeremy before I left for college. If I could, I would take a lesson from the book of Vicky and sing I'd Rather Be Me to both of their faces while flipping them off." My dad laughed at my image and he started to smirk at me.

"Just as long as I'm the Impala waiting for you with a video camera. I do really admire that girl, she's got guts and she really does love you like a sister much like Mimi does and that's how friends are supposed to be. Friends are supposed to be like extended family and accept everything about the other person." My dad reasoned and I smiled at him for caring so much about he's an amazing person with me and he always makes me laugh.

“I know dad, you're right as usual. She's only my friend because you're my dad otherwise I have this feeling that she would hate my rotten guts and talk bad about me to all the popular kids. Hell she's probably already doing that, sorry for dumping all of this on you before your big trip that I'm going to miss now. I'm sorry about that dad, I wish I didn't have to go. God she can be so demanding!!" I ranted and my dad rubbed small circles into my hand that he was holding tightly to try to keep me grounded in reality.

"You know what I think? I think you should do the exact opposite of everything that she's told you to do through text. You'll take the Impala and you'll bring Abby and you'll change into your Supernatural pajamas when everybody else changes into theirs. You'll gush about your favorite actors and you'll just be a complete and utter nerd no matter what she says." My dad reasoned and he had actually a really good idea but I wasn't in the mood to get the shut down.

"We'll compromise and take baby steps, I'll bring Abby because she's practically a necessity to my personality and I'll have nightmares without her. I'll have Happy take me in the Audi though because I don't want to get too far onto her bad side right now." I added onto that and my dad just smiled over at me for at the very least caring enough about me.

"There you go, but if you find out that she and Jeremy are indeed having sex than I want you to do the earlier method and just videotape it and text it to me. Now, change of topic, what do you want for your birthday?" My dad changed the subject easily as I thought about the question.

"I want to spend my birthday with you, Rhodey, Pepper, Mimi and Vicky. That's all I really need in my life is to surrounded by people that I love in my life." I explained to my dad and he just seemed to think about it for a moment.

"Why don't you ever ask to meet your favorite actors in person? I'm sure that if you wrote all of them a letter than they would at the very least try to come." My dad offered and I nervously fidgeted with my fingers, it was a stemming technique that I had started right when things with Katie started to go south for the winter.

"Because I'm too worried about what if they didn't respond. Besides I would just make a fool of myself, especially around Jensen and Misha that would be horrible. I would love to have that opportunity to meet them in person and just hang out with the four of them but it would also be insanely hectic." My dad just shook his head at me but smiled at me all the same and I knew that he would do this for me.

"How about this, I'll do it for you, but I won't tell you the day that they will be coming so that it's still a surprise. Does that sound about right for you?" I nodded my head with a small laugh at him for the caringness that he had for me.

"That sounds like the most incredible nerdy birthday, I promise that I will try and not faint when I see them there for the first time. Now you're going to have to invite Mimi and Vicky otherwise they'll have to bury me alive and dance on my grave. You know that I'm not exaggerating when I say this either because you've met them." I reminded my dad and he just started to laugh at me and my two crazy best girlfriends.

"That I have and they are both incredible ladies, can I tell you something honestly pumpkin?" I nodded my head though curiously because I had no idea where this was going.

"I never really approved of Jeremy for a dating option for you. It's one of the reasons why when you told me that he asked you out I told you not to go and offered to stay here and watch movies with you. There was always something off about the kid but I never really questioned it until you came back from graduation and I saw that he and Katie were both smoking weed on the back porch away from the party. They needed weed to get through your graduation party. It was like the biggest slap in the face to a parent who was so proud of his little girl, but I didn't say anything to you or to them because I didn't want to crush your heart since you still thought that they cared. You love ninja turtles and they used to make fun of you for the fact that your favorite was Donatello, in their opinion the weakest turtle since he can't cause all the damage that Leonardo or Raphael can. It was one of the reasons why I instantly asked Mimi and Vicky about what they thought about Donatello and they argued that he was the smartest out of all the turtles and they told me that brain power was better than strength power. That was when I knew, that they were the people for you, I know that you are still partially in love with Jeremy but I think that you should just shatter that and replace it with real love. You deserve that because I am too much of a coward to take my chances that I have and I don't want that for you." My dad explained to me what my two best friends were doing the night of my graduation party, my first time seeing them in person in three years after I graduated valedictorian for my college with the highest grades right before my dad even and broke his record and graduated sixteen. I was clenching my hand that he wasn't holding into an extremely tight fist that I banged sightly on the table just to get that aggression out. I instantly regretted it when my hand had began to sting and my dad laughed heartily at me.

"My god I hate them for some of the choices that they made. You know what, I'm going to leave Abby here, I'm taking my Donatello plush that Mimi got me when I graduated that she had custom made for me that's huge and usually stays in my room. It's still a stuffed animal and it's still extremely nerdy but it will make her angry even if she won't mention it." I smirked to myself and my dad just smiled at me nudging my left shoulder.

"That's my little girl, I'm so proud of you. I still say that your original idea to just use Vicky's method and sing that song that she taught you while flipping her off but you're you and not me. You actually have a soul and that makes you different from me." My dad smiled at me but I could tell that by looking in his eyes that he was tired of having to deal with my friend drama

"Sorry to have to bother you with all this friend drama dad, you have your big presentation tomorrow. I should just leave you alone." I stood up but he yanked me back down into my seat.

"Oh no you don't kiddo, you're not bothering me anyways. I'm just worried about you. This will be the first time that I'll be away from you since you got back from college and I'm going to a country that's one of the most dangerous places in the world right now." My dad hardly ever got emotionally invested in conversations like this usually it was me and he was just along for the ride.

"I'm worried too dad, especially now that I can't see you off thanks to Katie and her stupid slumber parties that I hadn't even really consented to in the first place." I said quietly but my dad just looked at me with kind eyes and a small smile on his face as he hugged me tightly to him as he so often did when we had our alone moments. I was about to say something else to him when my phone buzzed and I groaned knowing already who it was.

_Katie: God you are such a little bitch about your father. Just get your ass down here and have some fun for once in your life. You've been to college for fuck's sake, learn to live a little!!_

_Me: Well most of the time when I was away at MIT I was studying or spending time watching shows with my roommates._

"I should get going or she'll send out the search party. I love you dad, text me when you're off in the air okay?" I asked him and he nodded his head kissing my cheek gently.

"Go off and try to have fun with your "best friend" angel. I'll text you during the flight tomorrow. I love you." I smiled at my dad as I left the garage running into Pepper on my way out of the garage.

"Hi Pep, sorry can't go to the ceremony tonight. Katie's having a sleepover and practically demanded that I come over and spend the night with her rules that I'm planning to break." I rushed past the secretary and my motherly figure who looked back at me.

"You're still hanging around with that girl?! I thought that you told her to get a life!!" Pepper yelled after me and I yelled back at her as I went through my closet.

"I'm working my way up to it, maybe I'll be alone with her tomorrow morning or something. I don't want to embarrass her!!" I yelled back at Pepper grabbing all of my essentials that I would need for a sleepover. Which was included but not limited to my laptop, cellphone and earbuds, my favorite nerdy pajamas and my Abby Cadabby shirt that Pepper had made for me for Christmas paired with the bottoms since I wasn't allowed to bring her in person I would still have her with me and hopefully that would be enough. I also grabbed my toothbrush, toothpaste, retainers, medicine for the morning since I had thyroid disease and a fresh pair of pads just in case and threw them into the massive duffel bag with Donatello as I kissed his nose lightly.

"Bye Abby, sorry I can't bring you with me but Donnie will be a close second." I kissed my plush's nose and I could almost hear her laughter that I had watched on the show so many times.

"Hey, Happy, can you do me a favor? When does my dad have to leave?" I asked the chauffeur who smiled at me as I came running down the stairs in fear of making Katie angrier at me.

"He has three hours, why? Need a ride somewhere?" I nodded my head knowing that he would hate this but I would offer him a ride tomorrow to get ice cream in the Impala as collateral.

"I do and you're not going to like where I need a ride to. I'm going to Katie's, she practically ordered me to have a sleepover with her and probably the three blonde and one asian stooges." I remarked and my dad's chauffeur just laughed heartily at my reference as he grimaced.

"What's in it for me?" He asked me and I rolled my eyes at him knowing that deal was coming from somewhere.

"Ice cream and a drive in my baby tomorrow? Katie said not to drive that hunk of junk that belongs somewhere in a museum to her slumber party." I told the family driver who just looked back at me as if trying to contemplate my offer.

"You got yourself a deal Abby, come on let's get this over with." I hopped into my dad's Audi and into the passenger side when Happy got into the drivers side.

"You do know that in making me this deal that I get to pick the music right?" I nodded my head knowing that it would be something related to musical theater or some form of old orchestra music.

"Driver picks the music, shotgun shuts his cakehole as my favorite hero would tell you." I reasoned with my family's driver and he stated out of the driveway hearing the soundtrack to one of my favorite musicals.

"Really? You had to pick this song?" I asked my friend who looked at me the complete picture of nonchalance. The theme song to the Heathers musical started to play out of the car's speakers as my foot started to tap.

"No idea what you're talking about Abby, this song picked itself. Are you going to be okay without Abby Cadabby though?" I shrugged my shoulders pulling Donatello out of the massive duffle bag that I had with me that also had my favorite pillow that was themed after Sesame Street as well with Abby, Elmo and Grover on it.

"I got Donnie, hopefully if I do have some nightmares he'll just ninjutsu their asses with his bo-staff. I don't care if it's childish to be next to eighteen next month and hardly can sleep without a stuffed animal without being plagued by the worst nightmares known to mankind." I spat out as Happy stopped at a red light and looked at me out of the corner of his eye.

“What are we doing for your birthday anyways?" I started to smile remembering the conversation that I had with my dad in his garage.

"Wellllll it's not set in stone yet, but my dad did mention something about asking the big three from Supernatural Jensen, Jared and Misha along with David Tennant from Doctor Who down here so that I could throw the epic party for nerds. It will have to include Mimi and Vicky though as I told my dad since they would not be the happiest best friends if they didn't get sent the invite and I met all of their idols." I explained to the chauffeur as we started to drive into the neighborhood that Katie lived in, even richer than my own and she had this humongous house that I could easily lose all her bimbo friends and hide in a room for the night. That just might be what I end up doing when I saw that they were already there.

"I could just turn around now Abby, we could forget all about her and go get pizza." Happy offered up his alternative and as appealing as it did sound I knew that if I didn't do this than I would be no better than she is. I gently put Donnie into the bag knowing that there would be an inspection from her to make sure that I hadn't brought any stuffed animals or any childish wear at all.

"No Happy, I need to do this. If I turn around now than I'm no better than she is." I got out of the car and waved to him as I turned my head and looking down at my feet taking on the role of submissive best friend just so that this night would be over hopefully quicker. When I got the front of the house I rang the bell fingers crossed that it was actually her mother that did the inspection and not Katie herself. When I opened the door I let out a sigh of sheer relief that it was indeed Sandy her mother who was a scientist.

"Oh, hello Abby, you're the last of the girls to show up. How's your dad?" I nodded my head at the question coming into the house where she would inspect my bag to make sure that no drugs or drinks were in there.

"My dad is doing very well thank you for asking. He's leaving for Afghanistan early tomorrow so this is kind of the last thing I wanted to be doing but you know how your daughter is." I said quietly so that Katie wouldn't see me but Sandy just nodded her head with sympathy.

"Sadly I can imagine, did you at least bring a stuffed animal? Abby or Donnie?" She knew about my nightmares and I pulled out Donatello from my massive bag that held everything that I needed.

"I brought Donnie, I know how she feels about me still owning Sesame Street things. Even though that's my pajamas and my pillowcase that I brought." I added with a slight smirk and my best friend's mother just laughed at me.

"I have to work tonight so it will just be you girls tonight. I've already given them the lowdown, no boys, no drugs or alcohol in the house, and absolutely no bullying but that one is bound to happen. If things get too horrible, you're always welcomed to go home or to stay the night in one of our guest rooms." Sandy gave me the lowdown as I heard a booming laughter that was instantly recognizable, Katie. I gulped down a breath of air holding my Donatello's hand tightly for grounding and knew that if I didn't have a sensory overload I would be very surprised. Sandy knocked at her daughters door and I knew that this was going to be a very long night.

"Yes!! Come in mother." Sandy opened the door and I moved a lock of hair behind my ear seeing the four girls that I had figured but one new one that kind of stuck out like a sore thumb. She had short red hair and a Supernatural shirt with a pair of ripped jeans. I let out a breath of thankful air knowing that there was someone of nerdy intelligence in that room.

"Oh!! It's Abigail, girls, this is my best friend Abigail Stone." I glared at my best friend for not telling my real last name but she sent me a glare daring me to counter her but I was not in the mood.

"Actually, it's Stark, my dad is Tony Stark." Most of the other girl's the name just rolled off their backs but the nerdy girl in the corner's eyes lit up at the sound of my father's last name.

"What's behind your back Abi?" One of the girls asked and I knew that I was busted for trying to hide him so I took him and again the nerdy girl's eyes lit up at seeing the Donatello stuffed animal.

"Where did you get him?!" The girl asked me as I shuffled into the room sitting down on the floor next to the girl.

"Technically this is a graduation present from my roommate back when I was still at MIT. I graduated in early last May and returned home so when I became valedictorian for my class year my best friend Mimi got me this." I explained to the younger nerd girl and she smiled at me.

"I'm Elliot. It's nice to meet you Abby." I saw out of the corner of my eyes Katie and the other girls go scuffling through my bag and I turned over to them about to chew them out when one of them found my Abby Cadabby pajamas.

"What are these?" She looked at them with such disgust that Katie took them and threw them into the trash.

"Hey, Pepper bought me those for Christmas!!" I yelled at Katie going to her trashcan to fish them out so that I could still wear them.

"Well than she wasted her money on something that was totally childish. And you should burn them along with all your stuffed animals. You're almost eighteen years old Abigail and it's high time that you stopped looking up to puppets that aren't even real or keeping turtles that don't even make any sense." I eventually found my pajama bottoms and stuffed them back in my bag dragging it with me back to where Elie was sitting.

"Why do you put up with her bullshit towards you?" Elliot whispered to me and I shrugged my shoulders grabbing Donnie for comfort as the other four girls all started talking with Katie and I kind of tuned them out.

"Because I don't have any other friends in this town, Mimi and Vicky, my roommates still have two full years of college left. Sometimes I hate being a genius because it makes it harder for me to make friends since I moved grades so quickly." I fished out my laptop so that I could draft out the email that I wanted to write.

"You two, put that away and join the group!!" Katie ordered and I put the laptop into my bag carrying Donatello and she took one look at my plushie before she turned on the fireplace and threw my stuffed animal into the fire.

"Why did you do that?!" Elliot asked her and she just shrugged her shoulders briefly and turned off the fireplace once the toy that would keep my nightmares away was just charred ash.

"Because she's eighteen years old practically her birthday is next month and she's going to be having the biggest party right Abigail?" She asked me but I didn't hear her, all I could see was my stuffed animals burning body.

"No, I'm not having some big party. You should know me better than that at this point." I looked down at my skirt that I was wearing when Elliot put an arm around my shoulders.

"Are you okay? That had to have been really sad for you." She asked me and I shook my head. I couldn't stay here but Happy had only just dropped me off, it made me wish that I took the Impala with me.

"Oh, she's fine Jade, it's just a stuffed animal, not like she needed him to survive or anything." You have no idea how much I loved that stuffed animal do you?! You never cared about me, asked me why some nights at sleepovers I would wake up screaming. You would just laugh at me but Elliot stayed by my side sitting down next to me.

"Why aren't you having a huge party? I mean you're dad has a lot of money right? He could easily give you the most epic party of the year!!" One of the girls, the asian one commented and I sat up fully scooting over to the rest of the group with Elliot's arm still around my shoulders. It felt nice and I felt a blush come onto my cheeks.

"Well, I have Asperger's so that kind of limits my interactions with other people. It's also why I needed Donatello, because I get really awful nightmares when I don't sleep with a stuffed animal." I explained to the other girls and Katie just scoffed at me rolling her eyes at me.

"That's not even a real fucking disease, it's all fake and made up by your precious daddy who isn't even really yours to begin with. Oh that's right, did I mention that for the first five years of her life nobody wanted her!! She was a freak and still is a freak." I felt tears start to stain my eyelids but I pushed them down and back.

"Excuse me a moment, I need to use the restroom." I took off tearing ass into the hallway and into the restroom where I broke down into tears and curled up into a little ball rocking back and forth to try to calm myself down. I wished that I still had my Donatello, he meant the world to me and he was my favorite ninja turtle but he was so much more than that. He gave me that relatability I needed so desperately even if to some people he was just a cartoon. I got my brain under control and working again and took my deep breaths as I stood up on slightly wobbly legs and splashed my face with water to make it look like I hadn't just been crying for thirty minutes. I had slightly raccoon eyes but I just took calming deep breaths to keep myself under control. Once that was done I was able to go back into the room where it was next to dead silent as I opened the door.

"L-Look, I'll just call Happy or my dad and be out of your way. I-I don't think that a sleepover right now is the best idea." I looked down at my feet but Katie stopped my exit by standing in front of the door.

"I don't fucking think so, you're going to stay right where you are or we are no longer besties. You can count Jeremy out of that equation too since I can easily persuade him to leave you by the dust. Than you'll be right back where you started friendless with not a person to talk to. Besides, you wouldn't to burden your father right? So just go curl up into a little ball and mope over your stupid stuffed animal." She was right, if my dad knew that I had just lost my favorite stuffed animal he would instantly comfort me and buy me a new one which he could do once he got back from Afghanistan.

"Fine, but I'll sleep in a guest room so that I don't wake anybody up in the middle of the night. Can I just watch a video on my phone before we get down the reason you dragged my dad and I away from watching Supernatural?" I asked my best friend who nodded her head stiffly and I opened my phone thankfully clicking on one of my favorite videos, a behind the microphone with both Jensen and Jared getting ready for the Scoobynatural crossover.

"Is that the crossover episode behind the scenes?" Elliot asked me and I nodded my head offering her one of the earbuds as I restarted the video and we both had a laughing fit over the yellow cat scene.

"I love how Jensen knew exactly what he was talking about!! I have that saved

onto my phone so that whenever I get sad I can rewatch it." Elliot told me and I smiled through my laughter at the girl next to me.

"I did the same thing but with all my favorite moments with Cas. I like to think that if this show were set in the real world that Castiel would have Autism or Aspergers like I do since so many things go way over his head." I mentioned to my new friend and she smiled at me shyly when I heard the bell ring and I looked around the room.

"Is there going to be anybody else?" I whispered to Elliot who shrugged her shoulders with indifference.

"You're probably wondering why Katie called me Jade, see I'm transgender and that was given name but ever since I've told her that she refuses to call me the name that I want to be called." Katie came back with three boys, one of them being Jeremy who smiled although apologetically that he couldn’t sit back here with us.

"Sorry you too, you don't get a boy. I don't know any nerdy boys." I looked down at my feet knowing that this sleepover was by far the worst idea that I had ever heard of in my entire life when Katie put on a movie and forced Jeremy to put his arm around her and one of the other boys pulled out a bottle of liquor.

"Well that's breaking two rules right then and there, and let's just say that they've already broken rule three with burning your Donnie earlier. I think that it's adorable that he kept your nightmares away. I'm sorry that you have to deal with them so much." I nodded my head solemnly as Katie turned around to glare at the both of us for talking during the movie and I just rolled my eyes getting out my laptop. I got an idea almost instantly and I typed out a message to the boy sitting next to me.

 _Want to listen to music with me on my phone? I want to write an email to my two old college roommates._ Elliot nodded her head and I typed out my passcode which was Jarvis. I handed her my phone which was with a Castiel background that I had drawn.

 _This is really good. You draw?_ I nodded my head and opened up my email right as Katie kissed Jeremy knowing my feelings for him and I looked down seeing the wet teardrops that were cascading down my face.

"You liked him didn't you?" Elliot whispered to me and I nodded my head at my new friend.

"Well I loved the boy that I grew up with. He's not the same anymore much like how Katie used to be different than so did he." I whispered back opening my email account and using Vicky's this time and not Mimi's since I needed to talk to my Janice. I prayed that we were watching that movie tonight since that was one of the few chick flick movies that I actually really loved.

"How different we talking here? It's not like she one day had a soul. I'm only here because I just moved to the area and my parents wanted me out of the house tonight. They want me to go to gender therapy." Elliot whispered back and I smiled at my new friend bumping her shoulder gently feeling a shock of electrify when I did that I had never felt before.

"She actually did, true she always thought that my love for Abby Cadabby was a little bit odd but I am a child at heart, what can I say?" I joked and my new friend just laughed at me pulling something out of her overnight bag. It was a stuffed animal, a Mikey Ninja Turtle.

"He was always my favorite, you can have him for the night though." I shook my head at the girl knowing that what I was going to say next would sound absolutely deranged.

“No way!! I couldn't do that to you, now put him away before she decides to throw your's into the fire as well." I whispered as I started to email my best friend.

"I'm actually going to go outside for a moment." I said quietly and Katie just shook her arm in a wave of indifference and I quietly went outside to call my best friends since I needed to hear their voices right now instead of just emailing them. I dialed Vicky's contact information hearing her yell at Mimi to pause the episode that they were watching.

 _"Hey girl hey, you almost never call us. What's happening?"_ I took a deep breath as her voice was like a soothing balm to my soul at the moment and exactly what I needed as Elliot came outside with me and sat down on the porch next to me.

"Dad?" I shook my head and mouthed to her best friend.

"Well I'm kind of at a sleepover at Katie's house right now... it's about as awkward as it sounds." I heard Vicky start to pace around the floor as I could tell that she was ready for me to keep talking.

"You might need to mention to Mimi that I need a new Donatello." I said quietly and I could almost sense that Vicky's anger coming off of her in waves.

 _"What?! WHY?! What happened to Donnie?!"_ I leaned away from the phone for a moment as Elliot laughed at me when I made a coo-coo sign to my new friend.

"Umm... Katie threw him into her fireplace and lit him on fire... She almost did the same thing to my Abby Cadabby pajamas but those got the trash method instead." I said to my best friend who was instantly in overprotective mode.

 _"So she lit Donnie on fire and you're still at that bitches house and haven't lost your chill with her yet?"_ I laughed at my best friend as I heard Mimi's yell of put her on speakerphone.

"I don't really mind if you put on speaker Vi, just go ahead since your girlfriend might have a conniption." I teased and could almost hear the roll of Vicky's eyes as she put me on speaker phone.

 _"Are you safe and okay? Do you need for me to call Rhodey or Tony?"_ Mimi asked me and I smiled to myself at the fact that she cared so much about me.

"Please don't call my dad, maybe Rhodey, the jury's still out on that one. I don't think so, it depends if I go in there and go full on Barrett Wilbur Weed on this bitch. I'm literally this close to losing my temper with her and just walking home. It's like she's trying to piss me off right now. I wouldn't be surprised if she and Jeremy aren't having sex right now." I heard a low whistle from my new friend friend at the Mean Girls Broadway reference and I smiled at her.

 _"Well if you go to Rhodey's you'll have to stop at home to grab Abby won't you? Since you'll probably have nightmares if you stay there and you don't have a stuffed animal. I can't believe that she would go that far to try to break you and your spirits!!"_ I smiled at the fact that Vicky got so angry at a girl that she had only met for an hour before she and my second best friend apparently went out to smoke.

"When I go back in there, let me tell you right now I'm going to flat out lose my chill with her since I just can't take it anymore!! She doesn't accept me for who I am or who I want to be so I don't deserve her. I will get the entire thing on video though, I can promise you that because my dad really wants to see me lose my temper with her. He told me that if I go full Mean Girls Broadway to get it on video so I'll have my new friend that I made here Elliot tape the entire thing." I explained to my two best friends as my new friend nodded in affirmation. My two best friends loved to tease me since I looked like a younger version of their Broadway idol Barrett Wilbur Weed with the long brown hair and honey brown eyes. When Mean Girls Broadway first came out they flocked to the show and to the theater since that was my birthday present from my dad last year while I was still away and I actually got to meet her in person. I fingered my hoop earrings and my new friend smiled at bumping my hip with her's.

 _"Four for you Abigail Stark, you go Abigail Stark!!"_ I laughed at my two best girlfriends and I heard my best friend start to cackle at me.

"Haha, you two are hilarious, speaking of my birthday even though we weren't technically, my dad and I had this idea earlier today. Well mostly it was my dad's idea but I'll get right down to the point. My dad wants to invite you two down here for my eighteenth birthday-" Vicky and Mimi cut me off there and I could hear the smile in both of their voices.

 _"We're there Abby, I'll buy you a brand new Donnie too for your birthday present. Vicky will find something for you, maybe an outfit that looks like Janice in Mean Girls."_ I started to laugh at them and shook my head at my two best friends.

"I didn't even get to the best part you two so let me at the very least tell you about that. My dad wants to contact Jensen, Jared, Misha and David to come to surprise me, he isn't telling me the exact date but he wants to surprise me." I heard an instant high pitched scream that I knew right off the bat was Mimi fangirling out.

 _"Are you for fucking serious right now Abby?! We are so there bitch!! I'll get to meet David Fucking Tennant!!"_ I started to laugh and signed to my new friend so that she wouldn't feel left out.

_You are invited too, I just wanted to get to know you better first._

"I knew that you two would be excited about that so I'm going to go inside, pull my hair out of my ponytail and go full hood-rat. Who's ready to see that? I might just get kicked out of the room after that. I don't care, I'll steal Mean Girls from her room before I leave and Princess Bride." I joked and my two best friend's both cheered for me and I dusted off my skirt.

 _"You better show her the proud girl that loves herself now. She's a mouse no more. Good luck man, I love you like a sister no matter what you do in there. Even if you go coward on me and don't do anything. I just hate the sound of you getting treated this way. Elliot sounds really cool though, I hope that I'll get to meet him when we come down there."_ My best friend congratulated and I took some deep breaths before ending the call pulling my hair out of my ponytail and flipping it to the side showing off my hoop earrings.

"Are you sure that you can do this? You really should, I'm not trying to talk you out of this but I just want to see the look on her face when you flip her off." I nodded head taking my flannel off my waist that I had been keeping there and putting it on while trying to make my hair look more tough.

"I'm positive Elliot, this needs to be done and I'm fine with it. She's had this coming and I've had this revenge plot planned out for a long time. I couldn't even drive my own car here otherwise I'd be able to leave, I drive a 67' Chevy Impala by the way, same color as Dean's and I worked on her all on my own as well." I told the younger girl taking a deep breath before opening the sliding glass door and tying up my sneakers that were getting untied trying to lose this anxiety of what would happen afterwards when I heard sounds of bombastic laughter. When Elliot cut in front of me to open the door and pause the movie that gave me a millisecond of extra time when I could sing my song.

"Why the fuck did you pause it?" One of the girls asked the transgender and I smiled to myself when I saw him sneak two movies out of the pile already knowing how this would end.

"He paused it so that I could have the courage to finally do something that has been needing to be done for a long time." I mentioned using my swagger as I came into the room trying to channel my inner Janice.

"What is this? Some kind of revelation?" Katie asked me as she looked at me when I cut in front of her Twilight screening. I dusted off my skirt again a nervous habit just trying to do this when I saw Elliot getting out his video camera on his phone and winked at me I knew that I could do this.

 _"So your best friend screwed you over acted nice when she's not nice. Well, I have some advice cause it's happened to me twice. Here's my secret strategy it always works because the world doesn't end it just feels like it does. (This was the moment that I had to be ready for as I rose my right hand and gave my best friend the middle finger) So raise your right finger and solemnly swear whatever they say about me, I don't care. I won't twist in knots to join your club I will say you make me mad and if you treat me bad I'll say you're bad. And If I'm alone from this moment on that's just what I'll do 'cause I'd rather be me, I'd rather be me I'd rather be me than be with you. We're supposed to be ladies and be nurturing and care is that really fair? Boys get to fight we have to share. Here's the way the that turns out we always understand how to slap someone down with an underhand. So here's my right finger to how girls should behave 'cause sometimes what's meant to break you makes you brave. So I will not act all innocent and I will not fake apologize let's just fight and make up not tell these lies. Let's call our damage even it's a new life for me where I'd rather be me, I'd rather be me than be with you. I'll say no, I'll say knock it off with your rules, and your deals, and your games, and those sycophants that follow you I'll remember their names. And when they drag you down, as they inevitably do I will not laugh along with them and approve their palace coup, 'cause that's not me. I don't need their good opinions I have plenty of opinions, every asshole has opinions but it doesn't make them true. What's true is being me and I'd rather be me and I'd rather be me, I'd rather be me than be with you. So raise them high 'cause playing nice and shy is is insulting my IQ. I'd rather be me, I'd rather be me, I'd rather be me than be with you. I'd rather be me, I'd rather be me, I'd rather be me than be with you!!"_ I looked at my best friend expecting a reaction from her but I got nothing but a blank dazed stare like she didn't want to believe what the hell just happened.

"Are you serious right now?! You have to do this in the middle of a sleepover?!" I nodded my head with a confident smirk going to grab my stuff while Elliot grabbed his.

"Yes I do have to do this to you in the middle of a sleepover. I am not sorry for humiliating you and I hope that you hate me as much as I hate you. Thanks for not letting me drive my Impala and throwing my second favorite plushie into the fireplace. Go to hell." I slammed the door in the middle of the wake and my new friend gave me a massive high-five.

“That was so boss bitch!! Nice job, I didn't know that you had it in you." My new friend cheered for me as I smiled over at her for being so freaking cool.

"I got to meet her actually when I went with Vicky and Mimi for my last birthday and I stood at the stage door to wait for Barrett. I was one of the biggest Heather's fangirls back when that was a thing since my friend and chauffeur Happy is the one who got me into it a long time ago." I told the girl as I saw the mean girls dvd and Princess Bride along with one other one at the bottom.

"What's the one at the bottom?" I asked Elliot who flipped it upside down and I smiled at the girl when I saw the Supernatural dvd.

"I brought it from my house, it has all the complete seasons even though Netflix has it as well but I love this show so much that I needed a copy of it. That boy though, Jeremy was it?" I nodded my head as we tried to find a guest room with a massive television eventually finding one on the third level and closing the door locking it.

"Been my best friend even before Katie, I thought that I loved him but apparently according to my dad both him and Katie were smoking weed at my graduation party in early last May. I don't know about Jeremy but Katie is definitely a pothead." I joked and Elliot got a good laugh out of that when I heard my stomach grumble.

"What do you want for dinner? We can probably order pizza or something like that and make Katie pay for it." I laughed at my new friend knowing that she was probably right until I heard the shave and a haircut knock at the door knowing that had to be Jeremy otherwise we wouldn't be hearing a knock rather the breaking down of the door.

"What's the password?" I asked my best friend and heard his shout of

"You guys couldn't have come up with a password in five minutes!!" I laughed at Jeremy letting him into the room seeing his kind eyes and he rubbed the back of his neck.

"We should probably talk about your graduation huh?" I nodded my head with a quirked up eyebrow letting my best friend into the bedroom that we were occupying at the moment. He sat down on the bed and me and Elliot sat across from him and I could see the frown on his face.

"So when you graduated from MIT, I was actually really proud of you and very surprised that you did it at the same age as your dad. I couldn't wait to see you again and spend time with your family again but your dad invited Katie too not knowing how bad she's gotten. She invited me upstairs so that we could "talk" but I hadn't known that she was carrying weed in her purse and she almost forced me to have some. I swear I'm clean of drugs and if it hadn't been for her than that wouldn't have happened." Jeremy told me and I knew that he was right and he wouldn't lie about something like taking drugs since he was captain of the track team and the soccer team and you had to be clean of all those things in order to do sports at our old high school.

"I have a peace offering, I figured that you would bring Donatello since you didn't want to risk having nightmares." Jeremy told me and he pulled a brand new one from out behind his back and I smiled at my old friend.

"You didn't need to do that for me Jere, I would have been fine." I rolled my eyes but hugged him and took the plushie from him anyways giving him a huge hug.

"You would not have been fine, you would have had nightmares and you know it. She's been plagued with horrible nightmares ever since she was a little kid and they often come to her when she doesn't have her Abby Cadabby stuffed animal that is literally gigantic. What movies did you guys steal?" He looked over at our pile instantly reaching for Princess Bride.

"This is one of my favorite movies, let's do this one first. But, every movie needs fresh popcorn and lucky for you lady and gentlemen I know just how to make it." Jeremy went down the stairs and I shook my head at my best friend's ridiculousness.

"He seems actually really nice, what's he doing with the bitch?" I shrugged my shoulders at my new friend crossing my legs overtop of the bed and putting my new giant Donatello in my lap and texted Mimi.

"I have no idea but I think that it might be different than what we originally thought. Jeremy has always been my white knight in shining armor when Katie would get too cruel since he lives just down a couple of blocks he would walk over here and we would sneak away and watch Princess Bride and Mean Girls. I don't think that I'm still in love with him though, things have changed since I went away to college and I learned a lot about myself and about others while I was at MIT." I explained to Elliot as I opened Mimi's contacts to tell her that a new Donatello wasn't needed.

_Me: So as it turned out I don't need a new Donatello plush after all, Jeremy saved you from that. I did the thing by the way and Elliot has yet to text it to me but he will and we're going to watch Princess Bride, Mean Girls and then maybe some Supernatural._

"That makes complete sense, okay, if you weren't a Stark what would you want to do with your life?" Elliot asked me as I heard Jeremy whistling coming up the stairs carrying three bowls. One with a mix of popcorn and reese's pieces and one with two separate bowls for me since I hated for my food to touch.

“If I wasn’t a Stark there are a lot of things that I would want to do. Car restoration is one of them, I pretty much built an Impala from nothing much like Dean does since my dad wanted for me to help make my first car. Right after that would probably be voice acting, I did a lot of acting on stage in high school and middle school. I have a bunch of friends who work in the industry that would help me get off the ground. Want to see my car?"I asked my best friends and they both nodded their heads at me.

"You finished her?! Of course I want to see what's kept you so busy all summer!!" Jeremy said handing me my snacks as I opened my phone when the opening scene of Princess Bride started. I found the best image of my Chevy to show my two best friends and I paused the movie so that they could see it. I also pulled up an image of Baby on my laptop so that they could see the difference which was very few and far between. 

"Holy shit!! It's like an exact replica, that's insane!!" Elliot looked so happy at seeing my car that I had worked on practically everyday all summer.

"Dude that's super cool, I still need to watch this show. Did you guys happen to bring it with you?" Elliot nodded his head at my best friend and he thought about it before popping the DVD out of the player.

"Where is it? We've got twelve seasons, let's see how far we can get tonight." My best friend looked through all the DVD's and I turned to him.

"Wait, are you serious Jere? You've never made any interest in it before now are you sure that you want to watch it now?" Jeremy nodded his head putting in the video for the first season with a bright smile.

"Yeah, I'm positive, I've always been interested it's just Katie never let me watch it. She told me that if I did watch it that she would ditch me but at this point, I'd rather be a nerd than be popular. So might as well lose two best friends than just one in the same day." My best friend said as Elliot played the first episode. I watched as Jeremy absorbed just about every moment and until Dean came on screen his eyes lit up.

"He's going to be my favorite character, I'm calling it right now!!" Elliot and I both laughed at him and moved into the center of the bed with our snacks as we laughed at every pop culture eighties reference that Dean made.

"You won't meet my favorite character until season four but he's awesome. His name is Castiel and he's an angel. He's super awesome and just one of those characters that spoke to me." My best friend smiled at me and drew me closer to him until we had our legs intertwined like we did as children. I heard a banging on the door at the end of the episode and me and my best friend both turned to each other when the door was busted open.

"What the fuck is going on in here?!" Jeremy looked up at his girlfriend and this was the moment that I was waiting for. Would he stand up for me and protect me like he used to or would he just go back to her clutches?

"We're watching Supernatural, what do you want Katie?" Jeremy asked his “girlfriend” with utter disdain and she stood in front of him her hands on her hips blocking all of our views of the scene as Elliot paused the movie and threw Donatello under the bed so that Katie wouldn't see him.

"I thought I told you that was a dealbreaker for me?!" Katie yelled at him but Jeremy just stood his ground not wanting to cause me to have a sensory overload without Donnie.

"And I told you back in the room that we were through and that I knew what I wanted. I wanted a friend who understands me and who could care about me. You only ever wanted sex from me and I'm sick and damn tired of it. I don't love Abby, no offense Abs, I think I know you too well. But, I do want to stick by her side and make her smile." My best friend comforted me as he yelled at his ex-fuckbuddy I assumed and I wanted to smile when she sneered at all of us.

"Fine, I'll tell everyone at school that you're gay, that Abby is the product of a one night stand, and that Jade over here is a closet nutcase." I started to laugh at her and they all turned to me. 

“Ah, you're a funny girl Katlin, I don't even go there anymore so you can say whatever the hell you please about me." I smiled at my best friends who laughed at my ex-bestie's face.

"We'll just have to see about that..." Katie then slammed the door and I grinned at my best friends as Jeremy got out my laptop so that we could order pizza.

"What about pineapple and olive? You two want drinks and breadsticks too? Might as well go all out since we're not paying." I laughed at my best friend nodding my head at the pineapple and olive recommendation.

"Sure thing, that sounds really good actually. How did pineapple and olive come about?" Elliot asked my best friend and I gestured to Jeremy with a look that I gave to my best friend that screamed you explain this.

"Well when we were kids, we tried out all these different sweet and salty flavors for pizza until Tony recommended the pineapple and olive combo. It quickly became a favorite between the three of us, at least it was for a couple of years until Abby went to college when Katie told me that it was the worst flavor for pizza and that pizza was the worst food for you." I stuck my tongue out and gagged as we started episode two and at the end of it we heard the doorbell ring and a yelling match between Katie and the pizza delivery guy as we were all nearly in stitches from laughing so hard. Katie opened the door dumping everything onto the bed and walking out of the room with a huff and slamming the door again. I rolled my eyes and took a slice from the pizza that we had ordered along with my fanta strawberry that had been at the top of the beverages.

“Alright, so I’ve got a question, why Abby Cadabby?” Elliot asked me as I took a sip from my soda with a small smile.  
“When I was adopted by my dad when I was five I had never seen any television shows or movies. We only had books since they were super against having orphans rot their brains. Anyways, once I was adopted I suddenly had all these options for both live action television and animation. My favorite show that I’ll still watch to this day is Sesame Street. I love Abby because not only do we share the same name but I love her sweetness and her kindness towards others and she really helped me find that in myself. I’ve always loved her, that was my first major birthday party was Sesame Street themed. I got to dress up like her and that was easily one of my favorite memories growing up in the mansion. I’ve never been one for huge parties usually it would just be my dad, my dad’s best friend and practically my second father Rhodey, his assistant Pepper practically my mother and then Happy when I got a little older who is our family driver. My dad’s coworker Obidah would also be there but I’ve never really trusted him very much.” I explained to my new friend and Jeremy put an arm around my shoulders happily.

“I remember that birthday party, Katie had some excuse for not coming but it was a great day. There was a jolly jump and we went swimming in the pool that’s at her house, we also watched movies and had a sleepover with pizza, ice cream cake and a ton of candy. Tony is easily one of the best fathers that I’ve ever seen and they have the dream father daughter relationship.” I blushed and smiled to myself even though my feelings for Jeremy were mostly gone now.

“While that was a really fun birthday party it’s hard to beat my tenth birthday. My dad and Jere actually teamed up for this one and the three of us along with Pepper went on a vacation to Orlando. I thought that we were just going to spend a few days at the Nickelodeon hotel that used to be there. However, when we landed the Stark plane at the airport and Happy drove us to the hotel I just saw two of my favorite famous people that I have ever met and bonded with. It was Tom Kenny and Doug Lawrence who plays Plankton and doesn’t get a whole lot of love sadly. There was also the voice actress for Sandy, Caroline Lawrence. She was amazing but for some reason I think Pepper bonded more with her than I did. Me, Tom and Doug actually became really great friends throughout that week. And as it would turn out the entire reason they were there is because a certain best friend of mine wrote all of them a letter asking them if they would mind celebrating my thirteenth birthday. I also had the honor of dining with Rob Paulsen one of my closest friends now and this person that I spent a good majority of my childhood idolizing since 2012 ninja turtles was a thing at the time and I hold Yakko Warner in the highest of respects. I got all of their phone numbers by the end of that trip and they all had gift bags with them themed to their characters to give to me. It was an incredible trip and after all that my dad decided to surprise me with tickets to Disney world for me and Jeremy.” I remembered my favorite birthday party that I ever had in retrospect was probably normal for others. 

“That’s incredible, he sounds like the dream father, a lot better than my old man. There needs to be more fathers like that who would love their child even if their not related by blood. I’m so jealous about you meeting Doug Lawrence I actually totally know who that is!! Plankton was my favorite when I was a little girl. ” Elliot told me and I smiled moving a lock of wavy dark hair behind my ear.

“My dad is really great, not the best father figure. He’s not perfect far from it, but we have enough in common to the point where our relationship is one of the best ones out there. There are some things that I wish were a little bit different, like that he was less busy or the fact that he has a one night stand almost every night but other than that those two things don’t really bother me so much anymore. Oh that’s awesome!! He’s a really great guy, one of my closest celebrity friends even though he’s not really famous.” I took another piece of the pizza that was in between the three of us and another drink from my soda before things got awkward.

“Well the business comes with the name, now that I’m freed from the evil clutches of her highness I can hang out way more.” Jeremy joked and we all laughed starting the episode again as one of my favorite lines in the history of the show came up a few moments later causing me to cackle with laughter.

“Seriously, I think he might be pretty up there on my favorite characters in television history. He’s not bad on the eyes either.” He winked and I laughed openly at my best friend.

“He’s pansexual.” I whispered to Elliot and she nodded her head at him as if committing that to memory.

“Have been for years, it was always just kind of there as a part of my personality.” Jeremy added on knowing that I couldn’t whisper for garbage anyways and he just smiled at me.

“I’m really proud of you Abs, that was something that I’ve been waiting for you to do for years. You were always too good for her and it was about time for you to stand up to her. And you did it in a totally unique and badass way that fitted your personality. I think that you should wear your hair down more often.” He fingered the ringlets of my wavy hair that I had struggled to keep in place.

“Really? It gets in my face all the time though unless it’s in a ponytail or a braid.” I protested and moved my hair again so that my eyes were visible again. I wished that I had my father’s honey colored brown eyes instead of my traditional blue eyes that didn’t really suit my personality.

“I think that it’s beautiful Abby, maybe there's other things that you could do with it that don’t involve pulling it back.” Elliot added and I blushed at all this attention that I was getting from my two friends. I heard my phone buzz and I reached down to get it and saw that it was from Pepper.

_Pepper: How’s it coming? Did you flat out lose your chill with her yet?_

_Me: Video sent, does that answer your question? You should show that to dad he's the one I mostly did it for._

“She seems to really care about you…” Elliot told me and I nodded my head while Jeremy rested his head on my shoulder.

“Oh yeah, Pepper is pretty much her mom. We’ve been shipping her and Tony for literally years, I’m just wondering when their both going to combust from all the tension going on there.” I laughed at Jeremy’s thoughts towards my dad and his assistant and I nodded my head easily agreeing with him.

“She is the best mother figure that I could have ever asked for. My dad hired her right after he adopted me because he wanted for me to pretty much have a babysitter for both me and him. That’s basically her main job, glorified babysitter.” I joked as I started the next episode of Supernatural and leaned back against Jeremy while I texted back Pepper.

 _Me: It started off really bad, Donatello got burned to a crisp by the fireplace method and Jeremy thankfully had bought me another one in case that happened. I did finally lose my chill with her as seen in this video…_ I sent my text as Elliot scooted farther away.

“You know, you don’t have to sit so far away. I’m on the soccer and baseball team and captain of both, I’m perfectly capable of cuddling both of you.” He joked seriously and I could see the flush on my new friends cheeks as I smiled at him.

“He’s right you know, we’ve always had a more tactile friendship even when we were kids.” I took the rest of my popcorn having had enough of the pizza and breadsticks wanting something sweet and salty.

“I think that it’s sweet even though you have no feelings for each other that you are able to always be there for her.” Elliot thought out loud and I could see the emotions play across my best friend’s face.

“That might have been a lie and I apologize for doing that…” I laughed at the movie quote my best friend had used from Coco by my favorite character Hector Rivera.

“Are you being serious?” I asked him and I could see the smile on my best friend’s face as he fluffed my hair.

“Of course I’m being serious, but I knew that you never felt the same way towards me that’s why I never said anything and Katie threatened to tell you if I didn’t date her instead.” I rolled my eyes at my ex-best friend and I wanted more than anything to go into that room and punch her in the face.

“I’m sorry Jeremy, if you would have told me five years ago before I left for college even I would have agreed to date you.” My best friend just booped my nose playfully and shook his head at me.

“I know that, I didn’t want for you to know how I felt. I know that your father never approved of me for dating material and I don’t blame him. If I could go back and do it over again I would make him see how serious about you I was than I would. You’re the most amazing person in the entire world to me and I love you but you shouldn’t love me back. It’s okay, this just means that I have two more great ones left right? Isn’t that how that works?” He joked using one of my favorite lines from musical theater that I had grown up with A Bronx Tale.

“That’s right Jere, I’m sure that there are hundreds of people who would want to be with you in that way. Besides, I don’t think a pansexual and an asexual could really have that kind of relationship.” I joked and my best friend just laughed at me embracing both me and Elliot in his arms as the episode continued. We didn’t need to say anything else as we watched five episodes of Supernatural before Jeremy checked his phone.

“Crap, I should get going my parents are probably going to be massively pissed. I’ll text you tomorrow, maybe we’ll go for ice cream?” My best friend offered and I nodded my head thoroughly and kissed his cheek.

“Bye Jere, I’ll text you tomorrow after I get home whenever that is.” He winked at me with a wave as I saw it was midnight and I groaned. 

“Yeah, I should probably hit the hay, you can go back into the main room if you want to Elliot. I’m sleeping in here.” I told her and she nodded going to the bathroom really quickly as I got on my Sesame Street pajamas. I crawled into the huge bed that was way too big for me but I heard Elliot come back with pajamas on this time.

“I’m staying with you, goodnight.” I could see the hesitation as she spread out her blanket and went right to bed after I did.

 _In my dreams that night all I could see was a completely dark room and there was very little light. Then suddenly the room was all too bright and I saw my father chained up to a chair with a whole through his chest as he was being tortured by terrorists. I woke up with a scream and started hyperventilating._ I gasped on my own air trying to calm down as Elliot was still fast asleep and it was eleven in the morning. I got dressed quickly not wanting to disturb the sleeping beauty as I wrote her a note telling her that I went home and left my phone number as I tiptoed down the stairs. I saw a text from my dad saying that he had just got to our private airport and I rolled my eyes, he was supposed to have left three hours ago. I tried to be as incognito as humanly possible but I don’t know if I succeeded when I fell down the stairs and had to dust myself off internally cursing my clumsy nature. I went through the front door seeing that Katie’s car was gone and rolled my eyes of course she had gone, she had probably forgotten that me and Elliot were even at her house or she had left on purpose. My money was that it was the ladder instead of the former. I walked back home taking my time and using my passcode when I eventually got to the mansion on the top of the hill and sat down on the back patio that I loved since it overlooked the beach that I always go to whenever I want to go to the ocean and swim instead of the pool. One of the best things about living in California was that it was always great weather here at least that’s how it felt. Sometimes it was a little bit too hot for me but most of the time it was pretty much heaven. I heard phone start to ring and I looked to my phone seeing the contact that read _Uncle Rhodey_ light up phone.

“Hey uncle Rhodey, what’s up? I thought you were with dad.” I asked the army man knowing that this conversation was only going to end poorly. 

_“I… I was I swear!! I made sure that he got here and I even watched his presentation!!”_ He sounded so worried and that was totally not helping my system at the moment as I was already thinking the worst.

“W-What happened uncle Rhodey?! Tell me he’s alright!! I need to hear that he’s at least going to be okay!!” I ordered slightly paranoid that this was going to be the end of me and my perfect family.

 _“I don’t know if he’s going to be okay Abby, I wasn’t in the car with him. I shoulda been dammit!! If I would have just gotten into the car none of this would have happened. The car that Tony was in was attacked. He’s been taken by terrorists. I have no clue where they’ve taken him or what’s happened to him but it can’t be good.”_ I felt tears come into my eyes and I knew that this was the moment I had been dreading all week. I should have gone with him, I usually accompany him on just about every business trip. This was the first one that I haven’t gone to in literally years.

“This is all my fault… if I had just been here last night and maybe hugged him and begged him to let me go with him he would probably be okay right now. It’s all my fault, I was a horrible daughter…” I started to just full on ugly cry and I couldn’t stop myself from doing so. It was that memory that was the worst day of my entire life. Getting beat up in school, Katie’s verbal beatdowns during school, being alone most nights while my dad was busy at the office, I would do anything to get all of them back to just see him bright eyed smile again. To hug him tightly and tell him how much I loved and admired him every day of my life.

 _“Hey, hey, hey, stop that right now. That’s not true okay. None of that’s true about you Abigail. You’re a Stark. Through and through and I know that Tony would want for you to not beat yourself up about this. He loves you more than anything and I want for you to stay strong. You’re probably going to be hounded by the press but you don’t have to talk to them if that’s not what you want to do. We’ve already reported him missing an hour ago and it’s been a very long day for me. I lost my best friend all because I didn’t think to go with him. He could be on the plane right now, coming home to you to watch Sesame Street and Supernatural with you. That’s what should have happened…”_ I listened to Rhodey just trying to pray that if God existed and he was out there that my father would be okay.

“Thanks for calling me and telling me uncle Rhodey. Does Pep know?” I asked him and heard the sigh that came from the other end of the phone.

 _“I wanted for you to know first, then I’m going to call the press and tell them what I know, then I’m going to call Pepper. Unless you want to help me with some of that…”_ My uncle trailed off and I nodded my head openly looking at all my dad’s contacts until I found the first major news station.

“You call Pepper, I’ll call the press and tell them. Good luck uncle Rhodey. I’ll talk to you later.” I hung up on my uncle for the first time in nearly ten years not telling him that I loved him as I called the major news station here.

“Hello MSNBC? This is Abigail Stark, I have some major news that needs to be published about my father. He’s been taken, he was at a presentation in Afghanistan and he was abducted by terrorists. That is what I would like for you to report and only that nothing else. Just to get the word out there. Thank you very much for your time.” I hung up before the manager could say anything and turned on the news a few seconds later seeing the article of course they didn’t listen to me and talked about his dealings with women and his past drug problems and his drinking addiction that he still had and I threw my head back with a groan. I heard the door swing open and saw Pepper looking more dishelved than I had ever seen her. I had tears that were staining my eyes and I could not stop them from falling in the slightest as she rushed to embrace me tightly to her.

“Did Rhodey call you too?” I nodded my head and continued to cry my eyes out at the loss of probably the best person in my life.

“H-He called me less than twenty minutes ago and I immediately called the biggest news organization I thought I could trust. Apparently I was wrong.” I glared at the television and Pepper laughed watery at me as the phone rang.

“It might be the local newspaper or…” Pepper was already up at the phone but I saw her eyes widen.

“Yes… yes she’s right here, I’m sure that she’s going to be elated to be doing this…. Oh you were watching the news? She’s really broken up right now but I think she’s going to agree to do this…” Pepper looked at me expectantly and handed me the phone as I pressed it to my ear.

“H-Hello?” I stuttered out into the phone not even recognizing my own voice but the other end of the phone was someone that had changed my life.

 _“Miss Stark? I understand if this is a really bad time but believe me when I say that Tony is a good man. I’m not a reporter here to critique his character. I had planned to call you today before I turned on the news. My name is Joan Ganz Cooney, see I owned Sesame Street. I’m retired now but your father asked me personally to make this call. ”_ The older lady on the other end of the phone introduced herself to me and I started to stop crying almost instantly. 

“Oh my god!! Sesame street was a huge part of my childhood once my dad adopted me. He used to watch it with my all the time, my favorite was obviously Abby and I still watch it to this day for her and Grover who is my other personal favorite. I am a huge fan of what your show does for people like me with Julia being on the spectrum. I admire so many of your puppeteers, my god just the way that Leslie made Abby was one of the most beautiful things. I grew up in an orphanage and wasn’t adopted until I was five so hope wasn’t really part of my childhood. That’s what Abby gave me, she gave me hope that someday things would get easier for me.” I had tears in my eyes but now for an entirely different reason. I was talking to the owner of one of my favorite shows in the entire world, a show that teaches kids that it’s okay to be different and that there are people who will help you fit in anywhere. 

_“Your father told me that you would gush about this when I did call you. See, he contacted me in January when you were still at MIT and asked if I could maybe fit you in for a slot on our little show. At first I was uncertain because I knew that you were not exactly that into being in the spotlight. I am here to offer you a spot since I’m sure that kids will be wondering what’s going on. I want for you to talk about adoption, your father, what you’re going through right now and I want it to be with Abby and Grover, whatever muppets will make it easier. I want it to be a full episode all about it. Do you think that you can do it?”_ Joan asked me and I could feel all the air leave me lungs a million questions were rushing through my mind. Would I be able to talk about my dad on public television? What would it be like to give Abby or Grover or even Elmo a hug and just thank them for always making me smile and for being there for me?

“Yes I know that I can do it, there’s going to be a lot of bad talking about my father. I want to bring some good talk about him. My dad has a ton of amazing qualities, hell he raised me on his own pretty much and left most of the work to his partner. I love my dad more than anything so my answer is yes, I would be absolutely elated to come onto Sesame Street and talk to the muppets and to the kids about what’s going on. A lot of kids are probably not really going to care but I want to do it because it will help me to talk about it with somebody. Can we add Elmo to the mix as well if that’s possible? Those were my three favorites in the entire world when I was a young child, Abby, Grover and Elmo. When exactly do you want me in New York?” I was so excited that I had almost forgotten about the travesty that was going on in my home life. All I knew was that I had an offer to work with the freaking muppets on Sesame Street. 

_“We still have to work on the script but that will only take one week and I will have it mailed to you so that you know exactly what to say. We might leave a few blank spots, those will be mostly your slots where you will fill in what you want to reply with to our muppets. That’s usually how special guest stars like you work. Of course we can have Elmo work with you as well!! He’s become quite the popular muppet as has Abby and we couldn’t be happier that children like you idolize and find them to be relatable. I do know one thing for sure, that your dad could very well win father of the year for you. He truly is an amazing man and the media doesn’t love to paint him as such. They point out people’s faults simply because it’s easier and it makes a better story. We want to play him out as the man that you knew better than anybody. You saw his best qualities and I know that he’s really incredibly proud of you. We can film the episode in say three weeks and you can be down here in two? We also have Julia if you would like to spend some time with her on the screen. I think that would do something for those on the spectrum since you’re on it as well. ”_ I felt even more tears come to my eyes as I nodded my head slowly digesting all of this information being thrown at me.

“Two weeks will be perfect, it’ll be enough time for me to get my bearings with my life and come to terms with this new normal. I would love to be with Julia she’s just adorable and I admire all of you down there so much since you’re always doing amazing things for children. I feel like it’s all my fault, I wasn’t even here this morning…” I realized that I had tears in my eyes again and these were not the happy kind.

 _“It’s not my place to say exactly how you are feeling but I can assure you of one thing. Be lucky that you didn’t go with him Abby otherwise you would be in the exact same situation that he is. It doesn’t have to be the new normal as you said, it just needs to be something that you hope will get better? Are you a religious person?”_ I shook my head adamantly but wondered if praying would really help me out here I doubted it.

“I am not no, I’m atheist but thank you for the offer anyways. Praying for his safety wouldn’t help me out here. I just have to hope that someday he’ll come home. That he will get here before my birthday so that we can celebrate me coming into adulthood together in four months. I love my dad more than anything, he’s not perfect and I won’t paint him as such. He’s a workaholic mostly and as a kid that was hard because I thought that he didn’t want to spend time with me. I of course was wrong but it still hurt.” I reasoned and knew that I was probably taking up a lot of this women’s time.

 _“I don’t think that you should paint him as perfect, point out his flaws and imperfections as long as they are kid friendly. Kids should know that even if their parents work a lot or aren’t around very much that they love their children. I think the biggest reason why I want you to be on the show so much is to talk about what it’s like not being Tony’s biological daughter.”_ I nodded my head and sat down with the main homeline cross legged on the couch.

“You want me to talk about the adoption process, it actually wasn’t that long as some might say. Thankfully he had all the paperwork in order, he was just looking for the perfect child. He found me up in the library during a private tour and I was reading Lord Of The Rings at five. I was always really intelligent, brighter than my peers and I thought that’s why he was so passionate about getting me to be his daughter. Thankfully I was wrong but as a five year old he gave me the perfect home, a little bit lonely at times since that was when he still worked at the main office instead of at home. It took me until I was seven before I told him how lonely I was when I wasn’t doing the easiest homework in the history of the world to me even when I skipped grades.” I explained to Joan and I heard her laughter knowing that I was finally going to be on the show that helped form me into the person I am today was a dream come true.

 _“I’m sure that you’re not having the best day so I will let you go. We’ll keep in touch and I will send those scripts to you as soon as possible. I do want them back with your own lines in there though. Send me a double copy when you get them if you don’t mind so you can know your cues.”_ I smiled to myself that this was actually happening to me. I saw Jeremy enter the house in a wide-eyed panic looking for me.

“Thank you very much for the offer you have no idea how much this will mean to me in the near future. I will definitely do that, bye.” I said goodbye to the owner and sighed deeply feeling more tears come to my eyes.

“Oh honey…” Pepper was at my side and so was Jeremy in less than a second easily accommodating for my state of woe at missing my dad.

“I-Is it bad to say that I miss him already?” I asked Pepper and she shook her head at me taking my hand. I would need to lean on my father’s assistant for the time being since she was easily the strongest women that I knew.

“It’s completely not, this is a tragedy and you’re too good of a person to have to deal with it. He might have been a questionable person but one thing is for sure, he loves you more than anything in the entire world. He always has even before he adopted you for his own.” Pepper comforted me like she always had while Jeremy tried to get me calmed down.

“This is not your fault Abby, it will never ever be your fault. If it’s anybody’s fault it’s the people that took him away from you. Your father is smart, insanely so. I have faith that before you know it he will be back to working in the garage all hours of the day.” My best friend comforted me easily and I nodded my head fully believing that Jeremy was right. He usually was when it came to these kinds of things.

“What are you doing here anyways Jere? I thought that you’d still be at home…” I asked my best friend who just smiled genuinely at me.

“Thankfully dear old dad was watching the news when he told me to get him another beer from the fridge and when I came back I heard the headline nearly dropping his drink but he yelled at me anyways.” Jeremy had never had the best relationship with his own dad it’s probably why he was over here so often growing up because my dad at least accepted him.

“I’m sorry Jeremy…” I apologized but my best friend just shook his head at me and kissed my forehead.

“It’s fine Abs, I’m for the most part used to it. Anyways, I basically hopped into my car and probably broke some speed laws to get here. But that’s just between us.” He winked at me and Pepper laughed openly at my best friend as I turned back to the middle just trying to imagine that none of this was real.

“I’m so sorry Abigail, did I tell you how he almost didn’t go to the ceremony at all last night? He wanted to make sure that if you came home early he would be here to support you. Tony might not have been a good man or a perfect father but he tried his best to be there for you. He also sent some emails out last night but I have no idea who to.” Pepper explained to me and I felt even more tears come to my eyes feeling more broken than ever. All my flaws and all my anxiety was coming true. My dad was in very real danger and I wasn’t there to protect him and hug him in light of this tragedy.

“I know who they were for…. Last night before I left, he asked me what I wanted for my birthday. I said nothing. I’ve never really needed anything, that fame and spotlight was not my jam. He was persistent as hell though, you know how he gets. I eventually let him talk me into allowing him to contact Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki and Misha Collins from Supernatural as well as my favorite Doctor David Tennant.” I mentioned to my mother-figure in my life who’s eyes widened almost comically and I smiled at her.

“That sounds like one hell of a party!! Am I invited?” Jeremy asked me with a bright smile as I saw him boop my nose playfully.

“Of course you are, so is Elliot. We just have to get you all caught up on everything nerdy. I’m not saying that you have to watch all thirteen seasons of Supernatural before the party but I do recommend that you watch at least four of the seasons so that you know who all the characters and actors are.” I explained and Jeremy nodded his head at me understanding where I was coming from.

“Alright, I’ll allow you to show me how to be a nerd.” I laughed at Jeremy resting my head on his shoulder just noticing the bag that he had. “What’s in the bag Jere?” I asked my best friend who smirked and got out the object that was in there. It was pint of Ben and Jerry’s Americone my favorite flavor in the entire world. It was basically my food crack and I almost never got it because I tried to remain skinny so that I didn’t have to exercise that much.

“Trying to fatten me up here witch?” I joked and he just laughed at me getting out his own pint of cookie dough.

“You deserve to indulge sometimes and I think this calls for it. Pepper, I’ve got your strawberry cheesecake as well.” Pepper smiled openly at my closest friend that lived in the proximity and got spoons for everyone.

“Thank you Jeremy, I know that Tony wasn’t the biggest fan of you but I think that’s because he thought that you were stealing his precious little girl from him. He felt threatened by you and that’s why he treated you that way. He’ll definitely treat you differently when he gets back.” Pepper reassured him and I took the spoon from her hand taking the wrapping off my ice cream crack and took a small spoonful instantly sighing at the flavors that had hit my tongue.

“Yep, I missed this stuff, thank you Jeremy.” I thanked my best friend who had his cookie dough and was just about to start eating it before he stood up and went to go and put in a movie. He just picked the last thing that I figured he would have, something that wasn’t even released to the modern populace yet. A documentary based upon my favorite Disney personal Howard Ashman, a lyricist who was tragically forgotten.

“This is my first movie pick, have you seen it yet?” I shook my head because I had been waiting for a literal rainy day on that one.

“I was waiting for a rainy day on that one, I wanted to watch it with my dad.” I told Jeremy who put the DVD into our flat screen television that he pressed the button and it came down as he put an arm around my shoulders.

“You still can once we get him back, for now enjoy it with your best friend and mother figure.” I remembered something that I had kept up in my room and I ran upstairs to go and grab both the card that I had made for Pepper’s birthday and the present that I had bought for her, a new necklace that she wanted last time we went window shopping. I went back downstairs seeing Pepper just talking with Jeremy and I held the present behind my back.

“I know it’s probably your worst birthday ever and my dad probably forgot but consider this from both of us.” I presented her with the gift that I had bought for her and the card that had Tinkerbell on it that I had made. Pepper had a massive love for the little fairy and considered her to be the one Disney character that she loved more than all the others.

“You didn’t need to get me anything, I would have been happy with just the card…” Pepper protested and I shook my head sitting back in my spot right in the middle as Jeremy twined his legs with mine. 

“I did too need to get you something, in the past thirteen years that you’ve been here you have never once forgotten my birthday Pepper. You’re the closest thing that I have to a mother Pepper, in fact you pretty much are my mother in everything but last name. I only get two days a year to buy you something to try to repay you for everything that you’ve done for me.” I hugged her tightly knowing that I had somehow struck a chord with her.

“Where’s Happy?” Jeremy wondered and at that moment the door opened and our butler\driver showed up and saw the three of us.

“I take it that you’ve heard, truly a tragedy. Are you alright Abby?” I shook my head but offered him the seat next to Pepper as Jeremy went digging through his bag to find the Rocky Road and I saw my dad’s favorite flavor, chocolate cherry Garcia in the bottom.

“How did you remember that was my dad’s favorite flavor?” I asked the teen boy who had changed my life for the better.

“I always remember everything about your dad for hopes that he would someday accept me as a dating option for you. For the past five years that’s what I’ve been trying to do.” He handed the ice cream to Happy and I went to go and put my dad’s ice cream in the freezer. When he got back, he would most definitely want it.

“We were just about to watch Howard, do you want to join us Happy?” I heard Pepper ask the driver as he smiled over at me.

“Of course I do, I went to go and see it with your father for the Tribeca film festival when little Abby was still in college.” I rolled my eyes and went back to my spot with a slight scowl at the driver.

“I still say that was one of the cruelest things that you two have ever done. You know that I would have wanted to see it more than anything and you still went without me.” I pouted as Jeremy pushed the play button on the remote and I saw the man who had made my childhood all the more easier. It was one of the most incredible documentaries that I had ever seen in my entire life and I watched it with rapture as the clock three in the afternoon and Jeremy and Happy polished off their ice creams.

“I swear where does that stuff go?” I had barely made a dent in my own since I had been spending the time watching the movie.

“Captain of the soccer team remember? I have an insanely fast metabolism. Want to go for a walk along the beach or something?” I thought about my best friends offer for a moment before nodding.

“Pepper, it’s your birthday go home I’ll be fine here by myself. Happy, you can take the time off too. Both of you go home, I’ll be fine. I’ll hang out with Jarvis or something when I come back.” I mentioned to the two workers and Pepper looked at me skeptically and I smiled at her.

“Are you sure?” I nodded my head giving the secretary a hug before I nearly pushed her out the door. 

“I’ll be fine, you guys hardly ever get time off. I need to get some me time with Jeremy so please go out and do something for yourselves for once. I’m taking the Impala anyways and nobody drives her but me.” I stuck out my chest and Happy laughed at me leaving actually before Pepper did.

“Okay if you’re sure that you’re okay. I’ll stop by tomorrow to make sure that you are still alive.” She joked, that’s what she used to say to my dad whenever he was out in the garage with me working late at night. She put back on her high heeled shoes and I got my sneakers. 

“Are we just walking or swimming?” I asked Jeremy who had just thrown away his ice cream before hugging me tightly and I easily felt safer.

“Whichever you want, I brought my suit in my own car and my mom just said to be back whenever.” Jeremy comforted and I knew that no matter what my best friend would be there for me. It was one of the things that I still loved about him and the more time that I spent with the newer Jeremy the more I realized that I had been an idiot for not taking him as my boyfriend sooner.

“I think I could use a swim, it’s been a while since I’ve gone swimming in the ocean. Let me just go grab my swimsuit?” I asked the boy who just smiled brightly at me and kissed my cheek before taking my hand.

“You know, you don’t have to put on a facade or anything with me right? You can tell me how you’re really feeling and you can yell at me for being a shitty best friend. You and I both know that I could have been there for you way more times than I actually was. Your dad was in his right mind to try and keep you away from me. I would have broken your heart the way that I was acting. I don’t care that you’re asexual, I never have you know that right? I would still want to be with you but I’m going to do this right. Take you out on dates, hold your hand in public, make you laugh everyday, be your knight again. I screwed up by getting with Katie and I realize that but all I’m asking for is a second chance to make you happy.” Jeremy told me earnestly as we walked up to my room and he held the door open for me.

“Jeremy…” I was at a loss for words at the way that my best friend was acting and I unknowingly had tears in my eyes.

“If you never forgive me I understand that this is horrible timing but let me make it better. I don’t want you to sink into depression without Tony here, that is not what he would want he would want you to carry on with your life. I know that I was never his favorite person but when he gets back everything is going to change. You’re an amazing girl Abigail Stark, you ran academic laps around me in school even though you did theater too, you’re the most adorable person that I’ve ever met, you continue to make me smile and laugh everyday that I’m around you or even when I just text you. I’m going to treat you right, you have to believe me on that one. Our sexualities don’t matter to me, a pansexual and an asexual can have a romantic and loving relationship. I don’t need sex to make me happy, I just need you in my life.” Jeremy was honest with me and I couldn’t help but throw my arms around his neck but thankfully he caught me and held me tightly to him.

“How long have you felt this way Jere?” I asked him and he was silent for a few minutes.

“Since middle school, around the age of thirteen. You were already a senior in high school back then and I thought that you were so far out of my league that I was too scared of saying something.” Jeremy told me honestly and I felt sobs wreck through my body.

“It’s okay Abby, just let it out. I’ll be here for you no matter what. I love you so much and I’m willing to wait until you’re ready.” Jeremy concluded and I looked up at his bright green eyes that always reminded me of Ronald Knox’s with his glasses and his flirty nature with both genders. He had always been attractive to me, but in this moment I looked up at him with my blue eyes probably watery and filled with tears I realized that I hadn’t been imagining anything in the way that he looked at me.

“Why didn’t I notice that you loved me so much sooner?” I asked Jeremy and he smiled brightly at me resting my forehead against his so that I could look in his eyes.

“I got rather good at hiding it the more people that I dated. I knew that the more experience I got maybe one day you would realize why I so often changed partners. Your father thought that it was because I was a playboy but it was because all of those people were replacements for you. Katie and I hardly even had a relationship, it was purely based on sexual chemistry. I never even wanted her to be a partner on my list, I just wanted a way to get out the aggression because you were gone and I couldn’t see you every weekend. She warped my brain, made me think that you left because you wanted to get as far away from me as possible. That I disgusted you.” Jeremy told me honestly and I melted into the embrace even further giving him all the comfort that I knew he kept covered up.

“I’m so sorry Jeremy, it wasn’t you. Not at all. It was me trying to break out of the Stark name and create my own name. I love my dad more than anything but this house is way too big for just two people usually. It’s why he throws such lavish parties every year for his birthday and Christmas because he wants to feel that people need to have him around. I needed to make myself known for my own achievements in the world and I did.” I reminded Jeremy and he kissed my forehead with a small smile on his face.

“I know that now, you have always been a free spirit Abby. I’ve known that all my life that you were the most breathtaking creature that I had ever seen. When you danced in the theater when you thought that you were alone, when you stuck your tongue out while drawing in preschool… there was a million things.” Jeremy mentioned to me and I looked up at him with my blue eyes nervously but happy at the same time. It was like seeing him for the first time with eyes unclouded by desire, the desire to mostly please my father. All of that was over now and I had made him proud, he was always proud of me but before he left it was like pride in spades.

“Why didn’t I just tell you how I felt when I still loved you too… God I’m such a coward!!” I cursed myself internally and Jeremy just shushed me and pulled me remarkably even closer.

“It’s not your fault for not noticing, you were way too driven to want romance. I don’t think I was ready before now for the full commitment either. I’m ready now though and I’m willing to wait all the time in the world for you.” Jeremy reassured me brushing the waves out of my eyes with a smile as he helped me find my swimsuit in my closet.

“I found it, it’s the Doctor Who one right?” I nodded my head taking the pink and purple galaxy object from my best friends hands as I saw the smirk on his face.

“What?” I asked him and he just laughed at me putting an arm around my shoulders.

“You are the most adorably nerdy girl that I have ever met in my entire life.” I laughed at my best friend taking a deep breath trying to quell the butterflies in my chest.

“And you’re the most chivalrous man that I’ve ever met in my life.” I teased and saw the cheeks on his face pink lightly.

“I love you Abigail Stark, more than I’ve ever loved anything in my entire life.” Jeremy told me honestly and I blushed a bright pink picking up my phone wanting to call my dad even if I knew that he would never answer his phone.

“You can tell him everything when he gets back darling.” Jeremy reassured me and I wanted to ask J.A.R.V.I.S something.  
“Hey Jarv, what time is it?” I asked the AI standing up and dusting off my skirt that reached to my knees.

 _“It is three thirty Miss Stark, will you be heading out through the garage with Master Jeremy?”_ I nodded my head even though the AI couldn’t see me in person and I offered my best friend a hand up feeling the warmth and safety that his hands always brought me.

“Yes I am Jarv, I’m taking the Impala as well. Do me a favor and lock up once I leave?” I normally didn’t ask the AI for much of anything but this was one of the rare cases when I did.

 _“Of course I can Miss Stark, you deserve some time to yourself during this rough patch. I can assure you that your father is smart and he will find his way back to you.”_ I smiled to myself at the fact that the AI knew me so well at this point that he could figure out my emotions through my voice. I held Jeremy’s hand as we walked through the house down to the basement where my father had kept the garage and I plugged in the code as the automatic lights turned on and I walked to my only car of the lot, my baby.

“This is her, I pretty much built her. She was in awful shape when I got to her, pretty much the end of season one Impala and I tricked her out into this beauty.” I told my best friend as he ran his hands along the car as he walked to the drivers side holding the door open for me as he always did and I blushed.

“Is the car door always that necessary?” I asked my best friend as he got in on his side of the passenger side and sat down in his swim trunks.

“Yep it is, if a lady is getting into a vehicle than it’s the gentlemen’s job to get the door open for her.” I blushed scarlet as I opened the garage and inserted my key turning on the ignition and pressing gently on the gas hearing the purr of the Impala on my way out.

“She really is amazing, just the like the driver herself.” Jeremy winked at me and I looked down at my shoes thoroughly humiliated right now.

“I-gah-I got nothing…” I sputtered out stopping at a light realizing that this was indeed Malibu traffic hour and I cursed internally.

“You’re adorable, just take some deep breaths there Abs before you blow a gasket.” My best friend teased as the light turned green and I thankfully was on my way again to Ventura Harbor, a beach where almost nobody went during this time of day.

“Thanks Jeremy that’s really helpful.” I rolled my eyes at my best friend in the entire world as he took my hand that wasn’t on the steering wheel as the traffic thankfully disappeared and I was able to focus on my driving.

“Alright, so who’s the best angel aside from Cas? I might have watched five more episodes before I went to your place earlier. You were right they do get a lot better!!” My best friend asked me and I smiled at Jeremy openly as I drove down the lane laughing to myself.

“My favorite angel aside from Cas is his older brother Gabriel. I love Gabriel so much mostly because I can relate to him, he’s technically the first angel that you meet even though Bobby that’s a character you meet towards the end of this season tells them that it’s a Demigod. I love Gabe though immensely, he’s easily one of the funniest and most creative characters on the show, he’s in charge of trickery and it’s so goddamn funny the first time you see him.” I hadn’t even realized that I was babbling about the angel that I had grown to love almost as much as Cas as the seasons went on.

“Aww that’s adorable, there’s a reason why I asked and that’s because I wanted to see you babble about something. It’s easily one of the cutest things about you Abs.” I blushed brightly and I drummed my fingers against the steering wheel of my car with a smile.  
“I think that Gabriel will easily be one of your favorites, he’s about my height too. When you put him next to Jared it’s one of the funniest things ever since he’s the freaking tallest thing ever and then you’ve got Richard who’s not even close to his size.” I continued to drive down the road and Jeremy leaned over so that he could rest his head on my shoulder.

“I could just listen to you talk for hours, it’s so adorable when you get passionate about something. What’s your favorite prank that he pulls on the brother’s during his intro episode?” He asked me to try and get me to keep talking as I tried to just focus on the road.

“He flattens all the tires on the Impala and Dean’s reaction is hysterical. It’s just little things like he steals Sam’s laptop, freezes it before he steals it, makes the brother’s get on each others last nerves, it’s just one of the funniest episodes in the second season.” I told him all my favorite Gabriel pranks that he creates and he smiled at me with his bright green eyes causing me to blush and just try not to look at him.

“What?” He looked up at me trying to get me to crack and just tell him what was going on with me.

“Nothing Jere, I’m fine, don’t worry about me all good.” Alright brain stop there please for the love of Chuck do not keep babbling.

“No you’re not, we’ve been through this doll you’re a rotten liar. Tell me. Did I do something wrong?” I shook my head adamantly just trying to not get us killed and focus on driving.

“Of course you didn’t say something wrong Jeremy. You said everything right and I’m just trying to focus on the road while I’m trying to get my emotions under control.” I admitted to my best friend while his head was still resting on my shoulder and I could see the sparkle of love in his eyes that I was still trying to get used to.

“What if I don’t want my maiden in control of everything? What if I want to protect her and to hold her and to never let her go out of sight?” I felt tears come to my eyes and I couldn’t help the brain to mouth filter issues that I was having.

“Then she wouldn’t ever want to leave. You’d get to protect her for the rest of her days.” I said honestly. If he were to never let me out of his sight then I would just melt into his embrace and stay there for the rest of my life.

“That sounds pretty incredible to me, I get the honor of protecting the smartest person I know. Did I tell you that I got a full ride to Pepperdine for soccer?” My best friend, like it or not, was one of the brightest people that I had ever met and I always knew that he would become a scientist or a pediatrician someday.

“That’s amazing Jeremy!! I’m so proud of you, I knew that you could do it. Do you still want to become a pediatrician?” I asked my best friend continuing down the winding road that led me to the almost empty beach at the harbor this hour. 

“Yeah I do, a pediatrician and married to Abigail Stark, the love of my life. Doesn’t sound like a bad life does it?” I blushed crimson just finding a parking spot and trying to get my heart under control since it was currently beating way faster than I could keep track of.

“It doesn’t sound bad at all… In fact that sounds like a dream. Like everything that I ever wanted coming true. Do you really think that we’ll be together that long?” I asked my best friend who nodded his head at me with a bright smile.

“Of course I do!! I’ve been in love with you since we were just preteens. My voice was still cracking and you were already a senior in high school on the road to graduating and becoming the most incredible girl that I had ever seen. Remember Minnie?” I nodded my head remembering Minnie Schwartz like the back of my hand she was Jeremy’s girlfriend for about three years before it ended very ugly.

“She was my replacement when I was trying to get you out of my system. You had a similar build, both loved old music and had similar goals in life both wanting to be artists. She found out that I was in love with you the whole time even though I had pretended to love her and as you remember she wasn’t too fond of that.” Jeremy told me honestly why him and Minnie had broken up and I looked at my best friend’s bright green eyes that always reminded me of freshly cut grass on a summer’s day as I parked my car in one of thousands of open spots.

“It’s pretty much taking all my willpower right now not to just throw myself at you Jeremy…” I told my best friend honestly and he looked at me with a little bit of hesitance but I could still see that small glimmer of hope. 

“It’s not just me though is it? Elliot, he was cute, not sure if he would swing our way though…” I cocked my head to the side curiously not knowing what was going through my best friend’s head at the moment.

“What are you talking about?” I asked my best friend and he turned to me the wheels in his head turning.

“I’m talking about us being in a poly relationship with Elliot of course.” Jeremy told me as if I was an idiot and I knew that he was being truthful and I had to pinch myself.

“Are you serious? You would be okay with that…” I asked my best friend with a raised eyebrow.

“Of course I would, it’s not like I’m against sharing you. True, I’d rather keep you all to myself but I don’t mind sharing you with him.” He shrugged and I couldn’t help the surge forward that I did kissing my best friend. It felt so good, so right that I wondered how I haven’t been doing this all my life. I felt small butterfly’s finally free themselves from my stomach and I couldn’t help but melt into his lap. Jeremy kissed me back just as gentle with an adorable amount of force behind it too. Just enough pressure to keep them attuned to each other but not fully making out. He put his arms around my shoulders and pulled me closer as I melted against him.

“Fucking finally….” He sighed out as he pulled back from the kiss and I started to to laugh at my best friend.

“I’m glad that I kiss good enough for you considering that was my first one.” I joked and Jeremy just hugged me tightly in the front of my car nuzzling against my neck.

“You kiss better than I could have ever dreamed. That was the first time I’ve ever felt a full on pulse of electricity going through my system. There was no lust which I’m thankful for because it’s kind of obnoxious to deal with. The wanting someone is annoying, it’s not the same as loving someone or needing them to keep you grounded. You taught me that. All the dreams that I ever had about you hardly any of them were sexual, maybe once in a blue moon they would be but that was rare. A lot of them were just you and me going out on dates, holding hands, you babbling on about something nerdy and me just trying to keep up…” He listed all of them off and I nuzzled against his chest while he still held me tightly.

“We might want to get up if we’re going to go swimming and then Parlor for dinner?” We always went to the Parlor for dinner if we went to Ventura Harbor, it was kind of a tradition.

“But I’m comfortable…” Jeremy protested as I left his arms but still smiled at my best friend booping his nose.

“We’ll cuddle more later, first water, then burgers or sandwiches not sure what you're in the mood for but I'll probably find something to eat that's on the vegetarian side of things and then back home for Supernatural. We gotta get you caught up boy.” I teased and he rolled his eyes at me as I took out my beach towel that had my Ninja turtles on it, mainly Donatello. I had been vegetarian much to my dad's dismay since I was six when I first saw a cow heart and was utterly disgusted and ever since then I hadn't been able to stomach the stuff.

“Still such a Ninja Turtle fan…” I stuck my tongue out at my boyfriend and he just laughed at me taking my hand as he crossed the street with me.

“You got a problem with that?” I asked my best friend who shook his head at me and kissed my cheek.

“No problems here, just it’s adorable how much you clearly are still a child. Who was on the phone earlier anyways?” He asked me and I turned back to my best friend with a happy smile.

“It was the owner of Sesame Street!! She wants me to do an episode about adoption and working parents.” I told excitedly and Jeremy gasped and looked at me with complete and utter surprise on his face.

“No way!! That’s awesome Abby, can I go with you to New York?” I nodded my head since I knew that somebody had to go with me since I wasn’t allowed to fly on my own yet.

“Of course you can come with me, hell I’ll probably need you with me to keep sane. I’m going to be so effing nervous and I’ll need my boyfriend to keep me grounded.” I told him honestly what I was feeling in my heart and his eyes lit up with a bright smile.

“You’re serious?” I nodded my head and he picked me up on his shoulders and started running down the pavement with me as I laughed brightly at my best friend.

“Put me down you crazy-head!!” I yelled at my boyfriend who stopped running for a moment and I thought that he was going to put me down until he started full on sprinting to the beach and was so happy that he clicked his heels while I hung on for dear life on his shoulders.

“I’m not too heavy?” I asked him after a moment and Jeremy just shook his head at me tilting it back so that he could give me a gentle kiss.

“You’re not, you hardly even had any ice cream today. I might get you a sundae after dinner. I have this feeling that you’re going to stop eating and not if I can help it. I’ll get you exercising too, I know that you skip meals and that’s how you remain so thin but not anymore you’re not. Not while I’m your boyfriend.” Jeremy assured me and I knew once you convinced him of something that he would never change his mind.

“Fine, we’ll take walks that way I get to see you everyday. Thank you Jeremy…” I thanked my best friend as he kissed my nose and I wrinkled it up in slight distaste.

“Anytime sweetheart, let’s get some sunscreen on you.” He put me down and I dusted off my swimsuit that was all wrinkled. I trusted him to spray the parts of me that I couldn’t reach namely my back as I blushed brightly when I saw that he hadn’t brought the spray.

“This works better than the spray, come here love.” I blushed even brighter as I went closer to him still thoroughly humiliated but I could tell that he was enjoying this.

“I know that this is making you uncomfortable Abby but we’re the only ones here. See? Everybody else is packing up and going home.” He persuaded me and I melted into his touch and sighed.

“Sorry to be such a pain in the neck…” I apologized and my best friend now turned boyfriend just kissed that fear away.

“Don’t worry about being a pain because you’re not. You love so openly and easily that it makes me want to just keep you all to myself. Even if I’ll give Elliot the fair chance at your heart because I can and will share you just as long as I get the same amount.” He winked and I stifled a laugh, he was definitely my Gabriel in real life. Flirty, loved candy and sugar, playing pranks, open hearted, emotional but acts like he doesn’t care about the bad things in his life…

“I… I love you Jeremy Altega, I really do. I tried to lie to myself to tell myself that I was over you and that I didn’t care about you because you hurt me when you would constantly flirt with everybody even me but never collect on it. My dad told me that you were messing with my heart, to not trust you because it would only end in me broken by the side of the road. I tried to hate you, I really did but I was never that successful. I love you Jeremy, more than science, more than my car, more than my fandoms, even more than my dad sometimes.” I honestly hadn’t planned on saying anything so soon but one look at his bright green eyes that glinted in the sunlight overflowing with the love that he had for me. He bent his head done so that he could kiss me openly and I just about combusted when I felt his tongue reach my lower lip. It seems that he got ahead of himself because he almost instantly pulled away and opened his mouth to apologize to me for taking things too far but I just came right back arms going around his neck and molding my body to fit his. This time I used my tongue to try to get into his mouth and he opened but slowly and I heard the whimper that left me almost embarrassingly. This was my first tried and true make-out session and I had no clue where to go from here. Jeremy helped me by gently putting his tongue forward and overtop of mine and I got the hang of it once he put his arms around my waist and held me there. Eventually I had to pull back for air sadly but when I looked up at my best friend’s eyes I saw that there was tears there.

“I wasn’t expecting for you to say it back so quickly or to do that for that matter… never stop surprising me. Can you promise me that?” I nodded my head easily and smiled up at my boyfriend. 

“I can try to always surprise you, I mean eventually down the road you’ll know me so well that you’ll be able to read my mind pretty much. I’m not that hard to understand…” Jeremy squirted more sunscreen into his hands and rubbed it into my shoulders.

“I don’t know about that, I think that even fifty years down the line I’ll still find you beautiful when you eventually need glasses full time.” I always needed glasses for reading but lately my vision seems even more blurry than normal and I knew that I eventually would be needing them again. My appointment was in three days and hopefully they could figure out what I needed.  
“That might be sooner than you think, I have an appointment in three days.” I told Jeremy and he continued to rub the lotion into my back and I sighed.

“I’ll drive you since I could probably use the drive.” Jeremy offered and I looked at my best friend with my eyebrows crinkled together. 

“That’s what Happy is for though…” I protested openly and Jeremy rubbed a particularly good spot causing a sound that I would deny later to come out.

“I know you appreciate Happy darling, but let me do this for you.” I nodded my head as Jeremy finally finished with the lotion and I got him next for orders of payback. Once the lotion was fully distributed he offered me a hand up off the beach towels and held my hand until we got to the water.

“Gah, it’s cold!!” I hadn’t remembered how cold the beaches were here compared to Hawaii where you just walk out to the beach and the water is the perfect temperature.

“Oh come on you wimp, it’s not that bad. Not all of us can go to Hawaii whenever we want.” Jeremy teased and walked further into the ocean taking my hand with his and I shuddered as the rush of cold water suddenly hit me. Jeremy moved behind me and put his arms around my waist pulling me into his lap and wrapped his strong arms around me to try and keep me warm since he was like the overgrown heater.

“That better?” Jeremy asked me and I nodded my head against his chin that was resting on my head.

“Much better thank you Jere, aren’t you cold though?” I asked my boyfriend who shook his head and kissed my forehead gently.

“Nope, I’m all good. You’re perfect in my arms which means that you should never leave.” I blushed brightly just allowing myself to get used to the water and wishing that I had brought my inner tube because full disclosure I can’t swim.

“I never want to leave Jeremy, if I had it my way we would be together all the time. We see each other whenever we can. You know sometimes I wish I wasn’t a Stark…” Jeremy turned me around so that I could look him in the eyes as his green eyes that weren’t wearing his glasses.

  
“Why do you say that Abigail?” He asked me and I knew that when he used my full name that we were indeed going to have this conversation.

  
“Because if I wasn’t a Stark we would have had a better chance at getting together, hell if I wasn’t so smart we would have gone to the same school for much longer. If only I had been born an idiot instead of a child prodigy…” I admitted and Jeremy looked at me as if he was trying to access whether or not I was messing with him.

“I for one am glad that my girlfriend is indeed a Stark. On the account of that you wish you weren’t so smart why would you want to be stupid? All my other girlfriends and boyfriends have one thing in common, they aren’t intelligent. In fact some of them were high class idiots. None of them could attest to your brilliance and in most cases that’s what I was going for. I love your mind and how sometimes you just can’t sleep at night because you brain is too loud, you took algebra at ten years old!! At ten I was still watching Scooby Doo because I thought it was “deep” and telling me something that it really wasn’t. I never thought that you were overshadowing me, in fact it only made me want to work harder because I wanted to please you. I wanted for you to look at me with all the love in your heart, the same way that I did you but you were too driven to notice me in any way but a best friend. I feel an honor that my best friend and now girlfriend is the smartest girl that I’ve ever met in my entire life. You helped me with my own troubles in school as well, remember when you used to FaceTime me to help me with Biology two years ago? You were practically buried in work and you still helped me with my own work that was way behind you. I am honored that a Stark gave me the time of day because it just means that I finally made it. You are Tony’s daughter and you should be happy that he loves you so much.” Jeremy was always my voice of reason whenever I wasn’t having faith in myself he would hold me tightly like he was now and convince me that I was beautiful and smart.

“Thank you Jeremy, for slapping some sense into me.” I joked and he laughed openly at my as he pulled me remarkably closer and I nuzzled against his chest hearing his heart pound.

  
“You hear that? That’s what it sounds like every time I’m near you. I was surprised whenever you cuddled next to me that you couldn’t hear it.” I blushed a bright pink color and smiled to myself feeling Jeremy nuzzle my cheek with his.

  
“I’m surprised that you didn’t notice how often you made me blush before…” I remarked and I could almost see the smirk on my best friend’s face.

  
“Oh I noticed alright, it was very often indeed.” I splashed water into my boyfriend’s face and it hit him right in the eyes.

  
“You son of a---” He cut me off by tickling my sides and I laughed joyfully at my best friend turned boyfriend as he splashed water around me before he pushed me playfully off his lap and I felt the coldness of the water surrounding me but I was used to it and I used my hands to squirt water at my boyfriend.

“Oh so it’s going to be like that is it?” He asked me with a raised eyebrow at me and I squirted water at him again as he got his ammunition back at me.

“Says the ass who decided it was a good idea to push me into the water!!” I shot back at my boyfriend as he laughed at me pulling me closer to him and putting his arms around my waist and hosting me back into his lap. He nuzzled my neck and seemed to be breathing my scent.

“God I love you so much, I feel like any second I’m going to wake up….” Jeremy muttered and I smiled to myself wondering when I was going to wake up too so I pinched my arm and yelped in a slight pain.

“Not dreaming I can tell you that right now, I just pinched myself. It’s weird, this day started off as a nightmare but now it’s so much better. The only way this would be better is if my dad was okay…” Jeremy hugged me tighter to him and I knew that this was his way of protecting me.

“Ah, I was wondering when you would bring him up. I was starting to get a little bit worried since you hadn’t said you missed him in the past few hours. I know that you miss him Abby and I can guarantee that he is missing you. He worries about you on a daily basis I know that for a fact since he loves you more than anything. You should be worried about him and I wouldn’t judge you if you were worried about him. But, I can tell you this, while he might not be home today, tomorrow, or even within the next month, he will find his way back to you no matter what. This is Anthony Edward fucking Stark we’re talking about, aside from you he’s the smartest person that I’ve ever seen. I bet my money right now that he is working on some elaborate scheme to break out of wherever he is and get home to you.” Jeremy comforted me and I started to cry because he was just so amazing at comforting me and I couldn’t believe that I was so lucky to have snagged him all for my own.

  
“Jere…. Thank you for that, you’ve got to promise me I might lose hope again, in fact I guarantee it. You have to be there to slap some sense into my head. Can you do that for me?” I turned my body so that I could face my boyfriend and be able to read his emotions.

  
“Of course I will Abigail, I’ll never leave your side unless I’m needed at home. My mom understands that you need me right now and I don’t give a rats ass what my step dad needs me for.” Jeremy punctuated this with a kiss to my forehead. I just allowed myself to melt so easily and wondered why I hadn’t just given into my emotions before.

“I feel like I should be paying you to be my psychologist right now….” I joked and Jeremy just laughed openly at me.

“I’m not cut out to be a psychologist we both know that I’m far too cynical for that type of job. I love you so I’m willing to listen to your problems even if you find them to be annoying. I love when you can’t stop talking because you’re so nervous or you just want to be heard.” Jeremy comforted and I just about swooned and I possibly did because Jeremy only pulled me impossibly closer. I started to hum one of my favorite songs that I ever learned on the piano Put A Little Love In Your Heart and Jeremy started to hum the back up parts as we both laughed at each other.

  
“I remember when Winn played that song on Supergirl, I’m going to miss him next season….” One of the few nerdy things about Jeremy that already existed was the fact that he loved the shows that the CW put out for superheroes mainly Arrow, Flash and his favorite Supergirl.

  
“You just love him because you have a huge crush on Jeremy Jordan.” I teased and Jeremy laughed openly at me knowing that I was just pushing his buttons.

  
“And you don’t have one on Andy Mientus?” He shot back at me and I rolled my eyes at him huffing but that was only because I didn’t have a come back

.  
“Fine you win this round, I do love Andy a whole lot. Especially his vlog series Purple Summer and I’m babbling sorry I’ll stop talking in three, two, one…” I willed myself to just stop talking and he smiled at me lifting up my chin.

  
“No, keep talking, you know that I love it when you just talk about nothing.” Jeremy encouraged and I blushed slightly turning my head down until Jeremy lifted up my head.

  
“Come on sweetheart, just talk about nothing. It’s adorable and you know that I don’t care that you tend to babble.” I looked at my best friend with a small smile on my face as I gently kissed him.

  
“I forgot what I was even talking about to begin with…” I rubbed the back of my neck and my boyfriend just laughed at me kissing my forehead.  
“You were talking about Andy’s vlog for Spring Awakening.” He reminded me and I nodded my head leaning back against the water as it hit my back.

“I loved his vlog, it’s probably my all time favorite things that Broadway.com has ever made. When he was doing the deaf west production that was right around the time that I started to learn sign language. I hoped that I would meet him when I was in New York one of those times during my stay at MIT since my dad would send me out there sometimes for a break. I did meet him once-” I had never told Jeremy about this interaction for fear that he wouldn’t really care but he just looked at me his green eyes blown wide.

  
“When did this happen?” He asked me and I thought about it for a moment because it had been just a chance meeting.

  
“It was when I was in New York last time to see Mean Girls with Viki and Mimi. I also got a chance opportunity to see Once On This Island and while I was waiting at the stage door I saw Andy waiting there for Michael to leave. Thankfully I carried around all those playbills from every show that I’ve ever seen and his Wicked showing went to Massachusetts and I got to go and see him in it. Anyway’s I went up to him to get him to sign my playbill and I was the most nervous I have ever been. My cheeks were a light pink and Mimi and Vicki still love teasing me about the way I stuttered around him to this day. I told him about how I watched Smash like a crazy person and you know that I did because you used to tease me to hell and back for watching it. He was so sweet and nice to me even though I was practically dying due to my anxiety he listened to me about how much he inspired me to start my writing in my free time and he told me that I should keep at it. That entire trip was just a whirlwind for me and I got to meet two of my biggest icons in all of theater and they were both so sweet to me.” I explained to my boyfriend and wished that I could pull up my phone so that I could show him the pictures that Vicki took of me and Andy.

“I wish that I could have been there to meet him with you, it must have been so adorable. We’ll have to see who we meet the next time that we’re down there. Maybe we’ll even run into Lin Manuel Miranda.” I started internally freaking out because if I took the subway with him I would literally die inside somewhere.

  
“Now that would be awesome but I would probably be way too shy to talk to him again. I saw him in passing the last time but couldn’t talk to him. Vicki and Mimi got to get his autograph in their Hamilton books but I was too much of a coward to ask for mine.” I informed my boyfriend who just tightened his arms around my waist and kissed my forehead.

“It’s okay love, I can’t imagine that you would have talked openly to him on your first try. We’ll just have to visit Washington Heights and see if we see him there. Besides we’ll get to try piragua, it sounds delicious.” I laughed at my boyfriend and gently splashed the water underneath my feet.

  
“It is, I got to try it a couple of times ago with Pepper. I really love New York and I can’t wait until I’m on Sesame Street that’s so awesome, I’ll get to be on the live action show that changed my childhood and made it better.” I told Jeremy and he tightened his arms that were around my waist while I smiled at my best friend.

“I’m so proud of you Abby, I know that the next couple of months won’t be the easiest for you but I’m proud of you for getting this far in the day without having an emotional meltdown.” Jeremy praised me and I smiled at him kissing his cheek gently and blushing when he winked at me.

  
“Thank you Jeremy, I know that my dad never liked you. He saw a lot of himself in you and was worried about me getting easily hurt by the likes of you and the playboy persona that you gave him having all these girlfriends and boyfriends. He probably won’t be too happy when he gets back but once I tell him all that you’ve done for me he will learn to accept the fact that you aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.” I told him and he kissed my forehead just pulled me slightly even closer remarkably and I melted into his side.

“I’ll have a talk with him once he gets back love, don’t worry I’m sure that he will have to grow to accept me because I’m not going anywhere anytime soon. I’m in this for the long hall no matter what happens in the meantime. I’m sick of being a scared little boy who can’t face his feelings because they’re too big for him to deal with.” Jere only pulled me closer to him as I relaxed on spot that was on his lap. I was surprised almost at how natural all of this was but my relationship with him was always different from others.

“He won’t go down easily, you’ve met my dad he’s even more stubborn than I am. I love him more than anything most of the time don’t get me wrong but he needs to let me live my own life. You’d think that he would have mellowed out once I got to college but nope he’s only gotten worse in fact.” Jeremy only laughed at me with a kiss to my forehead.

  
“He worries about you because that’s his job hun. If he didn’t worry about you he wouldn’t be your father. My father was never around and my stepdad hates me so I think that you got lucky, I’m not trying to start a fight but I’m just saying that you shouldn’t be upset because of the fact that Tony loves and cares about your wellbeing.” I reached up and kissed my boyfriend on the mouth sweetly and softly because I felt like it and when his thumbs held my cheeks allowing me to take hold of what I was feeling I felt as though life couldn’t get any better. Well it could if my dad was back home and safe where I could easily access him.

  
“Hey, hey, hey, what’s wrong? Why are you crying?” I hadn’t even noticed that I was bawling my eyes out until Jeremy pushed back so that he could get a good look at me.

“ImissmydadandIwanthimbackhomewhereIknowhe’ssafeandokay.” It all came out in one big long sentence blurb and Jeremy just ran soothing motions down my back.

  
“I can’t imagine what that would feel like if I somehow lost my mom. It must hurt so much, more than I could ever imagine. It’s OKAY to cry though, I won’t fault you for it. It’s natural to cry and it doesn’t make you weaker or less strong than I already see you baby. You’re so beautiful and your dad loves you so much. It’s only natural that you would be this broken up about something like this hun and I’ll be there for you no matter how much you cry. He’d be so proud of you though, you scared off Katie finally after all these years and that’s one of the things that he wanted for you to do. You’re going to be on Sesame Street for crying out loud, that’s amazing!! He would be so proud of you, more than he already was which was a lot.” I fell in love with Jeremy all over again after what he just said and I started to cry all over again while he ran soothing motions down my back.

  
“Shhh, it’s okay Abs, I’m here and I’m not going anywhere anytime soon. You’ll get to actually hug Grover, won’t that be nice? I know that you’ve been wanting to do that since we were kids. Ever since Frank Oz came back and did that you are special clip he’s been your favorite right?” I nodded my head softly and smiled at the thought of the fuzzy muppet that taught me to be imaginative and follow my heart while being myself.

  
“That’s true, in that moment he was tied with Abby even though I always loved him when I was younger because I could relate to having an overactive imagination. He brought a lot to the table when I was little and I’m really excited to meet the muppet in person and to interact with him. I can’t believe that I’m going to be a live character on an episode of the show, who would have thought after all that acting I did throughout middle and high school would have led me to this moment.” I snuggled closer to my boyfriend who only sighed into my hair pressing a gentle kiss there.

  
“Out of all your small birthday parties which one was your favorite? They were all really epic in a lot of ways. I think mine was the one that was themed to Disney and you dressed up as Belle. You were so beautiful, that was when I knew I loved you before I knew what love was. True, the first thing I loved was the way that your mind worked but that dress was the nail in the coffin.” I smiled at the memory that Jeremy was giving me. That was all so long ago and I needed to remember how old I was turning, I think that must have been my sixth birthday because it was my second one at the house.

  
“Damn, that’s a blast from the past, I had to think back to how old I was when that happened. I think my all time favorite was my tenth birthday, that was when the two of us, Pepper, my dad, and Happy all went to Orlando and we hit up the Nickelodeon Hotel before they closed down. We went to Disney World too but there was something so amazing about that hotel and the rooms that we stayed in seeing those characters everywhere. I remember my dad surprised me with the tickets to the theme park the week that we were supposed to go home. I had no idea what he was planning but he just handed me this envelope and in it was my Belle magic band and a Beast one for you. I’ve had some amazing birthdays over the past thirteen years of being a Stark and that one was a memory that I’ll carry with me for the rest of my life. I’ll never forget walking into the lobby and the first thing that I see is Spongebob and Sandy with Plankton waiting for photos with me along with their voice actors. And then all the team went to breakfast and dinner with us the next day including the Stephen Hillenburg. I never even expected that to happen, I was just hoping that we would have a great week wandering around the hotel and swimming a bunch in their water parks and outside our hotel room which we did.” I loved my thirteenth birthday and that was one where I would carry that memory for the rest of my days. Getting to meet the voice actors for my three favorite characters and then the rest of the crew the next night changed my life. I couldn’t remember if Jeremy had fun that trip though now that I think about it.

“Okay, this is time for full disclosure, that was a great vacation but I wasn’t the biggest fan of meeting the voice actors and I’ll tell you why. I may or may not have been a little bit… jealous.” I turned around at the sound of that last word shock evident on my face waiting for him to carry on.

  
“I know how bad that sounds, believe me I do, Doug was nearly three times your age but he was all you were talking about that entire trip. I wanted for you to pay attention to me at the time and that’s why I was so aloof until I had to go home on the Stark plane at the end of our trip to Disney world. What makes it even worse was that it was my idea to have them come to the hotel and meet us there and I told your dad about it being my birthday present to you. What I wasn’t expecting was for you to totally love talking about not just his character but actual nerdy things with Doug. It was obvious that you two bonded during that week and that hurt me for some unknown reason. It just hit me I think, that I knew next to nothing about the things that you were interested in. I made it my goal from that moment forward to try and understand you and the things you liked. I’m sorry if this makes me sounded like a possessive asshole, because I’m really not but the fact that your selfie that you took with him is still the lockscreen on your phone just irked me in some way. I wanted to be at the forefront of your mind throughout that trip and at Disney World I was finally but when your dad asked your favorite part of the trip on the way home and you said it was being around Doug Lawrence and that he had given you his email address that was the be all and end all for me.” I thought back to that trip and realized suddenly that he was right. He had done all of this for me without really thinking that I would bond with anyone from that original group.

  
“You thought that I would be too shy to ask them about anything but there characters didn’t you? Oh Jere, I’m really sorry, you should have told me something. I didn’t know that I was that obsessed with him. I can see why you would have thought that and maybe as a kid I did love him but it was more like an actor crush. Isn’t that stupid? Nobody even knows who he is yet I’ll always look up to his humor. I’m really truly sorry that I didn’t spend enough time with you. I should have realized how bad that was.” My friendship with Doug Lawrence was something that to this day I still had and he even came to my graduation for MIT. When Viki and Mimi asked me who my favorite person that was famous I had ever met and I had said the voice actor for Plankton they looked at me like I had grown a third head.

“It’s not your fault, I should have assumed that you two would have had a lot of things in common with each other. You were so happy and that alone instead of cuddling you at night should have been enough for me. Looking back on things now, I shouldn’t have acted so self absorbed during that trip even to the point where Tony talked to me when we finally got to Disney World about what a horrible tool I was acting like. He said that if I didn’t shape up he would send me packing. I think that might be one of the reasons he isn’t the biggest fan of me now that I’m older. To him I’ll always be the snot nosed little brat that was jealous of someone that I shouldn’t have even thought about. You hung around Tom Kenny a lot too and Caroline Lawrence but no I decided to be jealous of the one that I knew would make your vacation because you always loved defending Plankton. You saw a lot of potential in him to be good and even if it never happened during the show we got to see it during Sponge Out Of Water. It didn’t help that he invited you to the premiere of that and you got to spend even more time with him. When was the last time you emailed him?” I listened to Jeremy as he talked to me about his conversation with my dad and smiled to myself.

  
“Let’s see, it’s been about three days, sometimes we call each other too. It was nice having him to vent to when I was at MIT before I bonded with my housemates, they thought he was my brother. I still say that you just should have told me and you can’t lie to me and say that you didn’t enjoy talking with Tom Kenny.” I smiled at the memory that I shared with my two close friends going through their final years of hell.

  
“Yeah, you’re not wrong about that, Orlando was really fun plus I loved meeting the turtles with Rob Paulsen later on that was a fun meal.” He was right, Rob Paulsen was one of the most incredible people that I had ever met and I do remember my best friend being happy to be with our idol. He even signed a bunch of my Donatello stuff at the time including this massive poster that I still have hanging in my room that I adore.

“I think we should probably get out of here Jere, I’m starting to prune up.” I told my boyfriend and he only kissed my forehead helping me up and out of the water and shaking his hair like a dog as I giggled at him for being such a child. I went to dry off and took out my phone seeing it blow up with texts from Viki and Mimi.

“Oh god, I guess they saw it fantastic. What do I tell them?” I rubbed a hand over my face and Jere only hugged me from behind as I tried to find the words to tell them how badly I was feeling.

  
_Me: Sorry guys, I was in the water at Ventura Harbor with Jeremy. I’m alright, I mean I could always be better than I am but I’m with Jere so that’s a good thing. If I was alone I don’t know how I would be feeling._ I also went to my voicemails seeing that three people had tried to call me in the last half an hour. I clicked on the first one letting the speaker play out and hearing Tom Kenny Spongebob voice coming out of my phone.

  
_“Hi Abby, I’m hoping that you’ll call me back soon, I know this must be hard for you and me and the rest of the gang will be there for whatever you need. We all love you like our daughter especially me and Doug so we want to do the best we can to keep you the same happy little girl that we always love seeing. Give me a call back when you can.”_ He ended it with the classic laugh that I always begged for him to do whenever I saw him in person.

“That was really sweet of him to call you, I know you always admired him. If you do go to meet up with him and Doug somewhere, can I come with? I feel like I owe Doug an apology for acting so selfish.” I nodded my head clicking on the next voice mail and hearing Rob Paulsen’s Yakko Warner.

  
_“Hellooo Abby, I’m so incredibly shocked to hear what happened to Tony. He loves you so much, about as much as me and the rest of your voice acting friends do. I hope that I can make you feel a bit better in the coming months. I know that Tony is doing whatever he can to come back home to you and Jeremy. Give me a call back when you’re not busy, mwah goodnight everybody!!”_ I couldn’t help the obscene amount of giggles that were escaping me as I clicked on the final one from unsurprisingly Doug in his normal voice.

  
_“Hey Abby, I know that Tom already called you but you didn’t answer your phone and he’s really worried about you. If you were with Jeremy than we can understand that, he’s a good kid. Anyways, I was just calling to see if you were okay. There is something that you, me, Tom and Jeremy can do as a group if you want to see the two of us that we haven’t done yet. Have you heard about the Nickelodeon indoor theme park at the Jersey American Dream shopping center? It’s supposed to be HUGE and Tom has been really wanting to go. Give me a call when you get a chance, I want to hear from my teammate.”_ I laughed at the way he said teammate like Plankton and couldn’t stop the tears that swelled up in my eyes.

“Baby? What’s wrong?” Jeremy ever quick to to discover how I was really feeling wrapped his arms around my middle and pulled me close wet swimsuit and all.

“It’s just, I never realized how much everyone cares about me. I mean I knew that Doug loved me like his daughter since he and his wife couldn’t have children but I had no idea that Rob even still remembered my phone number. I love all of my friends and family so much and they all love me even though I don’t really deserve it.” Jeremy just hugged me closer and kissed my forehead making quiet noises to help calm me down.

  
“How could they not love you more than anything Abby? You’re an incredibly kind, loving, goofy, childish at heart and caring person who treats those around you like they are treasured. They can all see how truly amazing and beautiful you are and would walk through hell and fire you just to see you smile or laugh. Especially Doug and Tom, that much is obvious.” I smiled at the fact that my boyfriend cared so much about me as my stomach rumbled loudly.

  
“And that’s the cue to go and get my love something to eat.” I blushed a flaming bright pink as I slipped back on my sandals to walk around the mirena and to get something to eat. After dinner I just ended up driving Jeremy back to my house.

“Are you sure that you want to be alone hun? I can stay longer if you want me to.” I just kissed my boyfriend gently and smiled at his kind hearted nature knowing that he would no doubt about that.

  
“Thank you for offering but I should really just call Doug and Rob back at least. I want to be alone when I do that. I’ll text you tomorrow though Jere.” I smiled at him as he kissed my hand and got my car door for me before kissing me one last time.

  
“Until tomorrow then beautiful.” My boyfriend told me before opening his own car door and leaving me entirely alone. I opened the door to leave the garage and smiled to myself as Jarvis came back online.

  
_“Welcome back Miss Stark, I hope that you have had a wonderful evening out. You go out so very rarely that it worried your father. What do you intend on doing now?”_ I went up to my room to flop on my bed before answering the AI.

  
“I guess my plan is to call back Doug, Tom and Rob since they called me earlier wondering if I was okay. I love them so much Jarv, I know that they love me too otherwise they wouldn’t have even bothered calling me.” I picked up my phone deciding that the best bet would be to call Rob first. I pressed the button on his icon which was Yakko in a Donatello costume with just the mask and the bo staff.

 _“Hey Abby, you got back to me!! I was worried you wouldn’t want to talk to little old me.”_ I found myself chuckling at my old friend that I had loved and idolized since I was really little.

“I’ll never be too busy to talk to one of my childhood heroes. Sorry that I didn’t get back to you until now though Rob, I was on a date with Jeremy.” I apologized to him and couldn’t help but smile at the fact that he had cared so much about me to call me on a bad day.

  
_“On a date with Jeremy huh? That’s a new development since the last time we emailed. I’m glad that you two are happy though in this time of struggle. How you holding up with that sunshine?”_ Sunshine was a nickname that my dad had given to me when I was a little girl that Rob had stolen after of course asking me if it was okay.

  
“To be honest with you, I’m not really doing that great. I miss my dad so much and it hasn’t even been twenty four hours since he’s been gone. I want to try and be in this house as little as possible until he gets back because I don’t like it this quiet.” I told him how I was honestly and genuinely feeling knowing that the elderly voice actor would entirely understand my situation.

 _“I can’t really blame you since you’re so used to having him around. I’m sure that anyone in your shoes would have the same issues. You can definitely come with me to some cons if you really hate it there that badly. I know how much you love con hopping and spending time amongst nerds. Are you going to be doing anything with Doug or Tom in the coming weeks?”_ I nodded my head even though he wasn’t in the same room as me.

  
“I actually am, Doug mentioned that the theme park for Nickelodeon is finally opened in Jersey at the mall there so we’re probably going to be doing that. I’m excited to see him again, it’s been since my graduation that I’ve seen all of you in person. I really do love all of you, I don’t think that you you all know that since I’m not the best at saying it without feeling like I’m a burden on that person.” I grabbed my new Donatello stuffed animal and hugged him tightly.

  
_“I know that you’re not the best at saying it. It scares a lot of people and not just you sunshine. That should be fun though to spend time with them especially at such an amazing place. I’m almost jealous, I want to come but I’ll let the four of you have fun and then you can tell me all about it. Speaking of Nickelodeon, have you watched some of the Ninja Turtles stuff? I’m working on it, obviously not voicing but I’m helping out with it mostly the voice acting aspect of it and helping them get into their characters. They’re really talented individuals even if the designs were a bit odd.”_ Rob had known that I was a little more than apprehensive about the remake of the classic cartoon that my dad had raised me on since the early two thousands.

“Yeah, I thought it was actually pretty funny. You’re doing a good job with the humor aspect. I’m a little disappointed with what they’re doing so far with Master Splinter but it seems like most of them just need to have some time. I still love Donnie though, it’s nearly impossible for me to ever hate him. I’ll miss the adorable gap in between his teeth that your version had though. His character will always mean a lot to me, it was the first time I had actually truly seen an animated character who acted remotely like me. As much as I loved Spongebob and even though that had Sandy I wasn’t really a scientist per-say more just into fixing things, creating new technology out of things that were broken and items like that. That’s what your Donnie did for me.” I hadn’t even noticed that I had gone off on a tangent of epic proportions before I heard the bright laughter of my old friend laughing at me.

  
_“Now that was super cute, haven’t heard you gush like that in a long time. Donnie was a ton of fun for me and he’ll always hold this big place in my heart with his techno babble and intelligence that does remind me of you. If you meet him or Raph in the parks you’ll have to send me the pictures. It’s people like you that matter the most to me, the fans that love my work no matter what and that’s why I keep looking for new characters. You are my favorite fan if that wasn’t obvious enough already and I’ve started seeing you more like family than the people I meet at cons. I’m so proud of you for not having an absolute meltdown when I brought up your father. Has anything else happened that I should know about?”_ I couldn’t help the tears in my eyes when he told me how much I meant to him.

“Thank you Rob, if it means anything I’ve always seen you as an uncle. Most of you voice actors are like my uncle’s. Actually yes, something amazing happened earlier today actually that I’m really excited about. I got a call earlier today from the person who used to own Sesame Street and she wants me to make an episode focused on my father and our story.” I told Rob about the fact that I was going to be on my favorite show.

  
_“Hey!! That’s amazing Abby, I know that show means the world to you. I think that you would make a fantastic actress and singer. If you were a normal girl and didn’t have to inherit an entire empire I would recommend that you become a voice actress and I would even help you by pushing you off the ground.”_ I smiled at the fact that this man meant every last word that he was telling me.

  
“I know you would, voice acting would be an amazing job and I’ll always be envious of the three of you for getting to do it. It’s a pipe dream though. I have to be the best daughter that I can and if I never see my dad again I have to be strong and take over his job. I’m surprised Obadiah hasn’t come banging down the front door yet telling me that I need to take over the company in my father’s absence. Probably because he clearly hates me not that I really care what he thinks about me. I have enough people that know the real me and can respect and love me for it.” I pushed a brown curl behind my ear and looked out my window seeing the sun setting outside as I moved out to my side patio so I could get a better view of it.

  
_“He doesn’t know you and from your stories he sounds like a complete asshole to you. I doubt that he will force you into anything, usually things like this they wait at least a year before doing something that drastic. You want to know what I think? I think that you should be happy that your father loves you and that he’s going to work his intelligence to the max to get home to you.”_ Rob was always my my voice of reason when I was going through something traumatic.

  
“You’re totally right Rob, hey can I call you some other time? I promise we’ll talk more another day but I have two more calls to make and I don’t want them freaking out.” I mentioned and just heard his bright laughter that I pretty much lived for some days.

  
_“Of course you can sunshine!! I just got home anyways, you should come up and visit sometime it’s not like you’re that far away. I’ll talk to you soon, mwah-goodnight everybody!!”_ I repeated the same motion back to him as we always did when we ended our conversations. I tried to figure out who to call next Doug or Tom, I loved both of them like crazy uncle’s but had to choose just one of them and save the last one for the last one. I decided to save Doug for last and pressed the Spongebob icon waiting for his familiar cheerful laughter to come through the phone.

  
_“Hi Abby!! I was waiting for you to call me back, I was getting a little worried there. How are you holding up kiddo? Is the house really quiet?”_ I smiled at the fact that he cared so much about how I was feeling and hugged my Donnie closer to my chest.

  
“I’m alright, I could probably be much better emotionally. Sorry it took so long to call you back, I wanted to talk to Rob first. I was out on a date with Jeremy when you called me so that’s why I didn’t answer my phone. He wanted to get me out of the mansion so we went to Ventura harbor. The place is obscenely quite without the incessant drilling that I got so used to hearing from the garage. I miss him so much Tom it’s uncanny. It’s not even been two days since the last time I saw him.” I hadn’t even noticed that I was crying until I heard my close friend from the other line trying to comfort me.

  
_“It’s fine that you miss him honey, I’m sure that he misses you just as much if not more. Your father loves you more than anything in the entire world and I’m sure that he’s working his hardest to come back home to you. We all love you and want to make you happy even though he’s gone. But, this is times when Spongebob works his best, he’s so optimistic and you are too.”_ Tom always knew how to make me smile with the simplest of words. He always told me that I was the person inspired him to keep being Spongebob everyday of the week.

  
“I’m so glad that I have the three of you and Jeremy in my life. I don’t know where I would be without all of you. Probably face down in a ditch at this point in my life. I love all of you so much in so many different ways. You’re right about the whole Spongebob being a legend in terms of optimism though, I don’t think I’m that much of an optimist, right now I’m terrified that I’m never going to see my dad again.” I tried to breathe deeply like my dad had taught me to when I was a child but nothing seemed to be working and I still felt as though I was dying.

 _“I know it hurts right now, I can’t even imagine what you’re going through right now. You don’t know if he’s dead or alive right now but you need to think for the best and stay positive. It seems humanly impossible right now but I know that you’re going to be alright Abigail. You love so freely and so openly that everyone around you can’t help but love you right back. Look at your friendship and relationship with Doug for example. He couldn’t have children but instead he grows to love one of his biggest fans as his own. Right now, you just need to lean on those closest to you and I know that’s the hardest thing for you. You’re not a burden on anybody and we all worry and care about you. Tony did a brilliant job raising you as his own child even if it wasn’t by birth the way that he acts around you might as well be. He worked so hard to make you happy and you did the same for him. You two were so simpatico for two people not related by blood it was like I was looking at two of the same people one was just older than the other.”_ I laughed at the description that he was giving me of how he looked at my bond with my dad.

  
“When you met me, I was trying my hardest to be just like my dad because I felt that we had a lot in common. He told me years later that he didn’t want me to end up like him. A washed up shell of a person. He wanted for me to stay the same little girl that geeked out around her favorite voice actors when she was ten years old. Like I just found out that Jeremy as a kid was jealous of the friendship I had with Doug. Which not going to lie I can totally see knowing him because it was his idea and I wanted to spend all my time around him and you talking about nerdy things. We didn’t get a lot of time to spend around each other since I was a freshman in high school back then while he was still in the fourth grade.” I heard Tom’s laugh at the sheer idea that Jere would be jealous of someone three times my age.

  
_“That’s a really ridiculous thing to be jealous of and a little bit ludicrous. You were like a daughter to both of us after that one week visit hence why you have both our phone numbers. He’s a good kid though, are you two dating now? You’ll have to come by the house soon and spend time with me and my family. They miss seeing you all the time like they used to. We’re all so proud of you, graduating college before the rest of your classmates even finished high school, do you have any idea just how brilliant you are? I know that you’re not good with praise but surely you must see just how genuine you are.”_ I couldn’t stop the tears from streaming down my face at just how genuine and true I knew Tom was being with me.

  
“You’re making me cry Tom, I didn’t know how proud of me you really were. I mean I figured that you were but I wasn’t about to ask if you were. Yeah me and Jere are dating and it’s a rather new development like we’re talking just a few hours ago. Did you hear from Doug about the amusement park?” I leaned back opening my closet and looking at my multitude of cartoon themed pajamas that they had all given to me with their gift bags when I originally met the three voice actors. I picked up the Spongebob themed ones that Doug had made personally for me that were lounge pants and a quarter sleeved shirt covered with Plankton items.

  
_“I think that’s really sweet that you two are happy for the time being and you deserve it. I’m sorry for making you cry sweetheart, I didn’t mean to. You shouldn’t be afraid to ask things like that because I would have given you the honest answer that I’m so immensely proud of you. I love you like my own daughter and you amaze me consistently every time I’m around you. I can’t appreciate and thank my favorite and closest fan enough. You showed me what being Spongebob really means to a child. I knew that it meant a lot to you in particularly because you took that relatability to the highest potential since you are an optimist to the highest degree. I did hear about the amusement park does that sound like fun for you? If it doesn’t you could come down to the studios for a tour and lunch if that sounds better.”_ I had never been to the animation studio down in Burbank despite being best friends with these guys for so long.

  
“I would love both options if that’s a possibility, I need to be in New York for a thing in three weeks. I got a call from Sesame Street and they want me to appear on one of their episodes in those three weeks. I don’t know if that will work with the Spongebob schedule since I know that you are all really busy most of the time especially you since you’re the main character.” I wondered what I could do with Rob though since I hadn’t had the time to see him a lot even though he only lived in LA about an hour and a half drive in heavy traffic. There were a lot of things that he loved doing most of them out in nature but that’s when I remembered something that he mentioned to me a few months ago. That Warner Brothers Studios was offering tours and he wanted for me to tag along with him on one of them.

 _“Abby!! That’s so amazing!! I know that the show means a lot to you and I’ll have to watch that with my own grandchildren and say that I know that girl and she’s one of my favorite people I’ve ever met. You’re going to be so amazing on the screen since I’ve seen you on the stage and you had a lot of talent. I can get you and Jeremy VIP passes to Nickelodeon studios maybe when they’re doing the voice acting for Rise Of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? That way Rob can join us since he’s always there when they record voices for the next coming episodes? I would love to show you guys around, I’m surprised that you haven’t been there before you’ve been friends with all of us for so long. I’m sure that I can bend the schedule so that I can be there. I got to have serious conversation though and you’re probably not going to like it.”_ I had a feeling where this conversation was going because I knew that Stephen Hillenburg hadn’t been feeling well for the past few months ever since he told me he had ALS.

“He’s getting worse isn’t he? I should have not even hoped that he would have gotten better. I don’t know why I did, he’s someone that to this day I idolize even though I’m friends with all of you now. I’ll shoot him an email see if I can’t make him feel better. This really sucks though, it makes me sad, he’s still not even that old and already I’m going to lose one of the nicest men that I’ve ever met.” I felt tears swell up in my eyes and pour down my cheeks.

  
_“I know that you respect his work a lot, but here’s the thing: No matter how sick he gets Abby, Spongebob will live on for the rest of time. It’s classic and still an icon in the animation community despite the fact that it’s really old. I can still remember the first lines I ever spoke as his character. Today’s the big day Garry, look at me I’m naked!! And then he jumped off the diving board above his bed and into a new pair of underpants.”_ He did his character voice something that always caused me to smile and giggle it was like his voice for Ice King even if I wasn’t the biggest fan of Adventure Time I watched it for his voice and he ended up being my favorite part of the entire show.

  
“I remember the first episode that I ever saw, it was a rerun and it was the one with the box that Spongebob and Patrick both sat in and created their own world. My dad and I still use the catchphrase, Imagination with the hand motions making the rainbow. That’s what his character gave me personally. Someone I could look up to and try to be like since he was optimistic even in times of sorrow. You’re my Spongebob Tom. You’re so much more like him than I am.” I dried the tears that were in my eyes and couldn’t help but smile as I leant back and looked at my walls that were covered with signed artwork from my favorite actors and voice actors that I met at cons.

 _“You are optimistic Abby, you are the most happy and upbeat person that I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. I know that Stephen really wanted to meet you one last time so I’ll make sure that whenever you and Jeremy come to the studios that he’s there. I can’t believe that I’m losing one of my best friends, he lives a strong legacy. You know what he told me? He wants for you to be one of the people that speaks at his funeral. Remember that guitar that he gave you that you learned how to play?”_ I looked at my closet and saw the acoustic guitar that the creator had made for me that was themed to the epicness that was Spongebob’s world.

  
“Of course I remember that guitar, I still play it whenever I can. I would be completely honored and humbled to speak with the rest of you at his funeral when it does happen. I can’t believe he’s already thinking about this. Do you know what he wants for me to play or am I picking?” I asked picking up that guitar as I tried to wrack my brain and remember what he would want for me to play for him.

  
_“He wants for you to play Ocean Man, the first song that he ever taught you. I’m with you on the notion that this is all happening way too fast but it’s better to be prepared for it to happen then for it to sneak up on us. You should be getting prepared for it to happen and fast. Sorry for being such a downer and when you’re already having a shitty day sorry for the foul language I know you don’t like it.”_ I frowned leaning back as my phone started to ring while I was on the phone with Tom and it was Doug.

  
“Sorry Tom, I’ll talk to you later, Doug is blowing up my phone. I’ll work on Ocean Man though. It’s been a long time since I’ve played it for anybody.” I said to the voice actor and I could almost hear the happy smile on his face.

  
_“Alright I’ll let you go Abby, stay strong and keep in touch with me either through text or call me once in a while!! Say hi to Doug for me even though I saw him at work today!! I miss hearing your voice and I’ll let you know about the dates when you two can do the tour. Kisses.”_ He always did the kisses phrase in his Spongebob voice that made me smile as I called the last person on my list. I reached for his contact information expecting this to be easily the longest call though I had lost track of time talking to Tom. His icon was one of my favorite things, it was from when I was thirteen and we both had gotten slimed with the rest of the voice actors but the image only had me and him with just this look of horror. He answered almost immediately which made me thankful since it meant that he cared about me.

 _“Hi Abby, sorry I kinda got really worried that something awful had happened. I’m glad that you’re alright enough to answer the phone though.”_ We were both the worrywarts of our small group of friends and I couldn’t help but smile.

  
“I’m fine Doug, I mean emotionally I could probably be light years better but physically I’m fine. I was just talking to Tom, no big deal it was kinda getting a little too real for me anyways. He was telling me that Stephen isn’t doing that great, like to the point where he’s already planning his funeral and he wants me to be in and I don’t really know how to deal with that.” I sighed deeply not wanting one of my favorite creators to pass away. When Robin Williams died and I was away at college that broke me emotionally for next to a year and I had never even met him before. This would destroy me most likely because I was actually really close with Stephen and he was an amazing guy.

 _“So he told you that huh? It is rather disconcerting especially for us voice actors. He only just started working on the show again and now we’re losing him. He means a lot to you, I’m sorry that this is happening the same day that Tony got abducted. I can’t even imagine what you’re going through.”_ I started to tear up again and I found myself wishing that they were all here in person so I could have a group hug. They were my favorite, especially Tom’s hugs since he was such a naturally warm and giving person.

“I miss him, so much Doug, it’s not even funny at this point. I feel so helpless like there’s nothing that I can do but sit here and wait for his return. How stupid is that? He’s done so much for me all my life that I’ve been in this house and I can’t repay this favor by doing one simple fucking thing!!” I sobbed clutching my Donatello that much closer and I knew that the bad word had accidentally slipped from my mouth but at this rate I couldn’t care less.

  
_“He wouldn’t want you to beat yourself up about this scenario it’s a bad turn of events but if I know Anthony Edward Stark, he’s going to be home to you before you know it. I can’t believe that the sweetest girl I’ve ever met just dropped the f-bomb.”_ He tried to joke and I found myself sighing against my chair that was outside where I had moved during my phone call with Tom.

  
“Sorry about that Doug, I didn’t mean for that to happen. You know, Jeremy told me the same thing earlier when we were out on our date at the beach.” I found myself smiling slightly at the thought of my boyfriend that I knew my dad would kill me for but he would have to deal. He didn’t know the real Jeremy, he didn’t know my Jeremy.

  
_“Now that’s a new development, I’m actually impressed with the two of you. I never thought that I would see the day one of you would do something about all that romantic tension. I’m proud of him though, he really has grown up a lot since he was twelve and a little bit of a brat. Though, what’s this I hear about him starting to do drugs?”_ My dad must have talked to him oh that’s fantastic. I tried to explain it in the best way possible.

  
“See, I had this “best friend” and yes I say that with the utmost sarcasm because she was awful, she emotionally manipulated Jeremy while I was away thinking that it was because of him that I had left. So that happened and then during my graduation party that you were all at she peer pressured him into taking drugs making him think that I would want him to. He realized after that one time that it was a stupid decision. He plays sports so he has to stay clean and sober in order for him to stay on my high school’s soccer team. About the brat thing, he was only really like that with you because get this, he was jealous of you. He even admits that it was a stupid childish thing to get all uppity about but I can’t really blame him. I don’t think he expected me to become such good friends with you or to bond not just over a shared love for animation but books, board games, D&D and manga.” I told Doug about how my best friend had basically been supremely jealous of the voice actor hearing his bright and booming laughter at the thought of my best friend being jealous of him.

 _“That’s ridiculous!! You’re like my daughter, though I guess he wasn’t really expecting for us to bond so quickly or over so many things. I just looked at you and felt this need to protect you while at the same time bonding with you like my younger sister. I can’t believe that he was jealous over that but at the same time it makes all the sense. He wanted for you to pay all this attention to him and when that didn’t happen he lashed out at everyone. I’m proud of him for telling you what happened all those years ago though. Are you sure that you’re okay with the whole Tony being gone? How’s the mansion? Do you hate being there now that he’s gone?”_ I listened as Doug asked me all these question and I couldn’t help but smile as he asked me if he was really okay.

  
“I’m not okay, I think I’m the farthest from okay. Talking to you, Tom and Rob over the phone made it easier though because you all distract me with stories and quotes from your shows. The mansion is really quiet and I do hate being here, it pretty much sucks ass and I want to stay here as little as possible but I just don’t know how to do that. I thought about your amusement park idea, it sounds awesome!! I would love to spend time with you guys there. You’re forgetting that I do love roller coasters, at least the ones at the Disney parks.” I moved a lock of hair back behind my ear softly.

 _“I can understand that you wouldn’t want to stay there and I wish that I could help with that. I could hang out with you for the day if that would make things a bit easier. That’s great!! I can book the plane tickets for all of us for two weeks? Unless you want to do the Stark Plane kinda forgot that was a thing since I’ve never been on it.”_ I thought to myself what the best idea to tell him this would be even though I knew he would be really proud of me.

  
“I would love to hang out with you and Tom before that, in fact he offered me and Jeremy this idea to take us all on a tour of the studios since I’ve never done that before. He offered to do it the next time that they’re doing audio for both Spongebob and Rise of TMNT so that Rob could join us and I could see how they do the recording for the voices. I told him that I would of course love that since I’ve always wanted to see you do your voices in person. About the amusement park, I can still get the Stark plane to pick up you and Tom but I’m going to be in New York City in two weeks for a thing that I’m actually really excited about. This morning, I got a call from the former owner of Sesame Street and she offered me a slot on their episode in three weeks to talk to kids about my dad and parents that work too much.” I explained to him my plans for the next few weeks when I suddenly had an idea of something I could do sooner maybe just me and Rob. I got out my laptop and searched in the bar for what I was looking for.

  
_“Oh my god!! That’s so amazing Abby, I’m so happy for you, I know how much that was a life goal for you. I’m really glad that you’ve agreed to go on the show and talk about something that’s really emotional for you. We would love to show you around the studios!! Maybe even invite a certain Greg Cipes? I know that he wanted to come to your birthday party all those years ago but life happened to him and he wasn’t able to come. He’s just mostly got Teen Titans Go right now on his schedule and Rob knows him from when they did the turtles together.”_ I gasped highly at the memory of how one of the last voice actors on my list that I wanted to meet and the thought of actually getting to talk to the man who played one of my favorite childhood characters Beast Boy would mean the world to me.

  
“You would do that for me?! But you’ve already done so much, I’m fine with just the two of you and maybe Stephen showing me around. I’ll have my time to meet Greg just not yet. I don’t think I’m prepared emotionally for that one yet. I know he’s just another guy like you are but BB meant so much to me as a child so I don’t think I’m ready for that yet. Maybe a tour of Cartoon Network some other time since Tom has worked for them a lot as well.” I thought to myself about how fun that would be as I clicked on the icon I was looking for seeing that it was indeed still a thing.

 _“If that’s what you want to do I’m sure that Tom will be able to do it. Greg even has the gift basket for you that he had made for your thirteenth birthday that’s how close he was to actually coming. His dog passed away that week though and called Tony to cancel. He’s a really great guy who loves his fans more than anything else in the world like most of us other voice actors.”_ I smiled at the fact that he would have come if it wasn’t for such tragic circumstances. Rob had told me about how much he had been excited to come to the party but couldn’t because of what was happening in his personal life.

  
“Oh that’s awful, I never knew why he didn’t come. I’m sure that he does love his fans and I would adore meeting so would Jeremy since his favorite turtle is Michelangelo. I actually just had a killer idea of something to do with Rob that he mentioned to me forever ago. It’s the studio tour for Warner Brothers, I don’t know if he’s done it with Jess already or not though.” I got out my texting application so that I could text the legendary voice actor.

 _“Then why not ask Rob if he can get him down there? It’ll be great and you can finally talk with him about his characters one on one like I know you’ve been dying to. Don’t worry about being a burden on Rob, he would do anything in his power to make you happy. Oh, he would love to go on that tour, him and Jess haven’t done it yet. You’ve met him haven’t you?”_ I shook my head even though I was alone in my room and not speaking to Doug directly.

  
“Nope, this will be my first time meeting him in person. I’ve heard stories, oh boy have I heard stories. One of my favorite gags was actually created because Jess and Tress kept fighting since they were all in the same booth. That show must have been insane in the recording booth.” I laughed at the memory of the silly story not being able to help it.

  
_“Oh wow, I never knew about that, I guess you would have heard a lot of stories about animation from him since he’s done hundreds of shows before. I’ve met him before, he’s a great guy you two will get along perfectly.”_ I smiled as my laptop dinged surprisingly with a text from an unknown number.

  
_Unknown Number: Hey Abigail, it’s me Elliot. I know you must be going through a rough time right now. I can’t believe what’s happened, I’m glad that you you didn’t go with him though otherwise you would be in the same boat._ I smiled at the fact that he cared so much about me and texted Rob with my idea.

  
“Sorry, got a text from a new friend I made yesterday. You’d love him, his name is Elliot, he’s actually a really big fan of your work. Surprisingly somebody other than nine year old me looked up to you.” I teased and heard his sarcastic laugh coming through my phone.

 _“Haha, you’re hilarious Abby, I’ll let you go so that you can talk to your friend though. You’ll have to invite him on the tour so that I can meet him. I’ll make a gift bag for him as well so that he can have the same stuff that you do.”_ I smiled at the fact that he cared so genuinely and openly about not just me but fans that he had never met before.

  
“Alright Doug, I’ll talk to you later, sorry if I was keeping you. Bye.” I hung up on my friend and texted back Elliot on my laptop.

  
_Me: Yeah, it sucks pretty hardcore, the mansion is really quiet right now and I kinda hate being home but don’t want to bother anybody. I actually have a question for you, did you grow up watching Animaniacs or were me and Jeremy just weirdo’s?_ I sent the text before hearing back from Rob thankfully really fast even if he wasn’t the most avid of texters.

  
_Rob: That actually could be doable!! Is it okay if I invite Jess and Maurice? We’ve always wanted to kind of do that together. Plus I really want for you to meet them and wasn’t Jeremy’s favorite segment Pinky and The Brain?_ I smiled at how my favorite VA had actually remembered that very minor detail in my best friend and I’s friendship. I poked around the website for a few minutes before getting another message from Elliot hearing back from him.

_Elliot: Yusss!! Oh my god, I loved that show as a kid, it was the perfect balance between spazy and had actually lessons to teach kids. Like you could watch an episode that had a really adult joke but at the same taught you the names of all the states and their capitals. Don’t tell me that you’ve met them too?!_

_  
_ _Me: Yes I have and this is your chance to meet up with them as well. Rob and I have wanted to this together for years, it’s the tour of Warner Brothers Studios. He’s inviting Jess Harnell (the voice of Wakko) and Maurice Lamarche (the voice of The Brain) and I get to invite you and Jeremy. What do you say, you in??_ I sent the text my heart lightly fluttering as I texted Rob back.

  
_Me: Of course you can invite them!! We just have to pick which tour we would want to do, we could go all out and do the deluxe studio tour or just do the normal one. Truth be told, I feel like the people who would take the deluxe tour are too ritzy and they have too much money to flaunt. I think the regular one would be just fine. Can I invite a new friend that I made last night? His name is Elliot and he’s a huge fan of animation, I don’t know if he will say yes or not though._ I sent the text and smiled as I went to purchase the tickets before he could because he would protest and I would allow for him to buy all of us lunch. I got a text back from Elliot less than a minute later.

  
_Elliot: OH MY FUCKING GOD!!!!! If you actually invite me to this I will be your best friend forever, like there’s no doubt I will be. I’ve wanted to meet the one and only Rob Paulsen since I was a little girl and this will be the greatest moment of my life thus far. I’ll have to find some way to repay you if you’re able to take me with you._ I laughed and read the text that Rob had sent me while I was working on finding a tour for us.

  
_Rob: I agree, but why not go all the way if it’s one of the first times that all of us are getting together? Of course you can invite whomever you want, let’s make this a big party!! I would love to meet him and what’s his shoe size? I can ask Steven for another pair of sneakers._ The sneakers that he was mentioning were these unique ones that had Yakko warner on both sides that I adored. I also had the exact same leather jacket that he did and I loved it more than anything.

  
_Me: Alright, I’ll get the deluxe version for the six of us, when are all of you free? Since it’s summertime we can pretty much work whenever it works with you guys. By the way, if you hear from Tom within the next few days, we’re working out a way to get me Jeremy and possibly Elliot to get a tour of the studios on a day that they’re recording dialogue for Rise of TMNT. They’re also going to ask Greg if he’s free to finally meet me._ I texted back Elliot as well after getting on some pajamas because it had been the longest day of my life so far.

  
_Me: There will be no need to repay me man, I want to have fun with my friends while my life is through the trash compactor. I think that we could be really great friends and Jeremy really liked you as well. I’m working with Tom on another tour, this one of Nickelodeon studios and Doug will be there along with Greg Cipes hopefully because he’s one that I’ve never met but always wanted to. I’m paying for the tickets and everything so there will be no need to worry about that. Knowing Rob, he’ll get each one of us some souvenirs and he wants to know your shoe size since we both have some incredible sneakers of Yakko Warner though he can do Pinky and The Brain as well since Jere has those. I’m getting the deluxe tour so it might be just us all day. You can pretty much ask them anything, at least you can ask Rob anything, I’ve never met Jess or Maurice so that will be interesting for me. So if you end up fanboying you won’t be the only one, me and Jeremy will be right behind you._ I went to brush my teeth and Rob texted me again through my phone this time.

  
_Rob: Actually, I’ve got a few days off from Rise of TMNT, I would be free to do this tour within the next week. Jess hasn’t been doing that much work and neither has Maurice, how about next Wednesday?_ I nodded my head texting him back with a smile on my face.

  
_Me: I would be happy to join you then, I’ll get everything this time and you can handle gifts from the gift shop at the end of the tour. I’ll probably want a Looney Toons something. I’ll tell Elliot that’s the day and we can all meet up there. I’ll pick up Jeremy and Elliot and meet you guys there._ I curled up with my Plankton pajamas and found myself going to sleep surprisingly easy cuddling my Donatello and my Abby Cadabby. 


	2. Chapter two

_ The next week went by about as fast it could be. I got my glasses fitted and got them the day before yesterday, sometimes it was a good thing being a Stark. People worked harder to get your approval in case they got a bad review. I couldn’t wait until today since it would be the first time I had seen Rob in a few months and meeting Jess and Maurice was something that had intrigued me through the stories that he had told me. When I told Jeremy he nearly blew his top at the idea of getting to meet both sides of Pinky and The Brain along with his favorite Warner sibling was pretty much endless possibilities for him. I met up with Elliot to give him his sneakers that were actually themed to Yakko same with mine and Rob’s and he loved them. I was so happy that he was excited about today since when I had been to his house it wasn’t really bad per-say but there was a lot of screaming coming out of it. When I asked him about it all he said was that his parents saw different ways of how to get him help. His mom wanted to get him through gender surgery and therapy while his father thought that it would be better to just lock him up in a mental institution. I said that he was always allowed over at the mansion and he only smiled at me and told me jokingly that he didn’t need a charity but would take me up on it. I hadn’t gotten around to telling him about how me and Jeremy were dating now because he seemed to be interested in me and I wanted Jere to be the one to talk to him since he was way better with people than I would ever be. He wanted to be the one that talked to him about making the two of us the three of us and hopefully this all worked because it seemed that the more I talked to the other boy the more my feelings were growing.  _ I hit my alarm clock at seven thirty knowing I would need to leave in exactly one hour to get there on time. I was so excited about today that I had been up half the night doing research and texting Jeremy since he was an insomniac and I wanted to stay up late talking with him and keeping him company. Even though we hadn’t even been dating for two weeks we fell easily into this sort of routine that wasn’t the slightest bit awkward. I heard that sometimes when best friends made the transition to relationship things got awkward. But, that hadn’t started happening yet and that made me wonder if that was just a rumor or something. I jumped into the shower having laid out my outfit last night and washed my hair with my fruit punch shampoo and condition putting the product that would keep my hair tamed for the most part while using my hair pick to put it all into place leaving it down today because that was Jeremy’s favorite. I ran to my room having now been really pressed for time putting on my purple shirt, white skirt and Animaniacs leather jacket I grabbed my Yakko Warner sneakers wanting to tie them downstairs and did a quick twirl deciding to put my hair into a side ponytail with my purple hair ribbon that matches my shirt. I could easily change it if Jeremy had problems with it, I went downstairs seeing Happy at the coffee machine.    


“Morning Abby, you forgetting something?” He gestured to his face when I realized I had yet to put on my new glasses. I was worried about getting ones that would look too nerdy but that’s when I saw these really cute ones with blue and black and decided to get those. I quickly got them on and then went back out this time wearing them and he just nodded his head at me.    


“That’s much better, you look like the perfect animation fan which you are. I’m glad that you’re staying the same happy little girl that you’ve always been for me and Pepper. Here you go, one for the road. I know how Jeremy hates you skipping meals now.” I blushed at the name of my boyfriend taking the strawberry smoothie from my family’s butler\driver.    


“God I wish he hadn’t discussed that with you, it’s so embarrassing. Yes I get easily distracted by things, dad’s the same way.” I looked sadly down at the garage missing my father more than anything else in the world. Happy only put his arm around my shoulder as I could see the sad smile on his face.    


“I know, I miss him too. I keep expecting him to just appear at the front door barking out orders. Happy, I need to race you instead of just having you drive me somewhere, Pepper I need this, where’s my hug from Abby today?” I laughed at this one since I knew that my dad took his daily hugs very personally. He wanted at least five hugs a day it was one of the things that he had originally jokingly requested of me.    


“I’m just wondering if being happy and having a fun time with my friends right now is a really good idea. Would he want for me to just leave him behind if he’s really dead Happy? It’s terrifying, I don’t want him to be dead. I want him home, working in the garage and complaining when he has to go to the regular office.” Happy only gave me a tight hug that I easily gave back almost wanting to sob into his shoulder but not giving into that feeling.    


“He’s not dead, you have to believe that he will do whatever it takes to come back to us. He would also want for you to occupy yourself with fun things while not suffering alone. I want him to be here too and so does Pepper but you have to carry on without him for the time being and if that means going on tours of studios than so be it. Just take a lot of pictures for when he comes back because he’ll want to see what you did while he was gone. Now, I believe that you have to drive to go get your boyfriends.” I shoved him lightly with a blush high on my cheeks since he had went with me to meet Elliot the other day and instantly loved him. 

“He’s not my boyfriend!! Christ, it’s like why do I tell you anything?!” I played up the false anger like I had inherited from my dad by watching him get annoyed with Dum-E and U.    


“You tell me things because you’ve got nobody else. Trust me when I say that Tony would be happy for you putting yourself out there. He might not have loved Jeremy but I think deep down he had this feeling that you two would fall in love at a later age. He would love Elliot and they would bond over science things. He might even make a great head of Stark Industries one day. And don’t you dare lie to me and say that you had been interested in running things. He knows that and that’s why he’s been looking for people he trusts to replace him. You’re his little girl and he only wanted for you to be happy. Art made you happy, restoring cars made you happy, acting made you elated but having to sit through meetings and hearing scientific mobo-jumbo that you couldn’t understand, well you could it was just harder for you. Plus, that social anxiety is a real thing and having to give presentations all the time would not exactly be useful.” I listened to Happy and dusted off my skirt nervously and not wanting to really think about this.    


“He wants ME to take over the company and for my dad I would do just about anything to make him proud of me. Elliot would be better but we both know that Obadiah would have massive issues with that because he’s for one thing trans and that would cause massive unneeded controversy and for another thing he’s not a Stark. It comes with the name that you have to be a Stark to run the company and I’m the only one that has that last name. So looks like it’s me or nothing Happy.” I laced up my sneakers that I had carried down the stairs with me.    


“That doesn’t matter if you three end up together for a long time and decide to get married having him take your last name. Also, who the hell cares what Obadiah thinks, not you and certainly not me. If he has a problem with Elliot then we can deal with that together and I’m sure that Tony will absolutely love him. He’ll be a little bit concerned about the fact that you’re in a polyamorous relationship but as long as both parties love and care about you than it shouldn’t matter to him.” I blushed a bright red just grabbing my backpack that had a water bottle in it and other necessary items including the posters I made that needed to be signed before I hung them on my wall or in my skateboard room where I tricked out with multiple ramps and other tricks I could do.    


“I’m not talking about this with you anymore Happy, I need to get going or I’ll be late. I have to run Stark Industries and it doesn’t matter if that’s what I want or not. And my social anxiety I can just get over. I’m not throwing Elliot into something that he doesn’t want when we haven’t even been together for very long.” I sighed deeply closing the door before he could say another word to me about Elliot and him being maybe a future leader of Stark Industries. So he invents gadgets and he’s really into science and technology wanting to study that and get his doctorate in that for college so what? That doesn’t mean that he has to take some of my responsibility. I wouldn’t do that to him even if it killed me. I got into my car and allowed myself to finally cry for the life that I would never get to have. I loved animation and voice acting and always wanted to go that route with my life but I had already been to college for science and technology. If only my dad were here, he would know what to do. Everything was wholly on my shoulders and I had to deal with that. I dried my tears not allowing Jeremy to know that I had been crying because he would ask me what’s wrong and I couldn’t be selfish. I should be happy today because I was finally doing something that I had always wanted to and I was getting to see Rob. I drove out of the garage and just let the feeling of my car take me to where I wanted to go deciding to go and get Elliot first because he was closer and sooner rather than later I was pulled up in front of his house. I saw him running out with his dark hair and light blue eyes that contrasted him beautifully and he opened the door to the backseat.    


“I’m still so jealous of that leather jacket by the way, it’s so awesome!! I can’t believe that I’m about to meet Rob Paulsen, he’s so cool. Hey, are you alright? You look like you’ve been crying.” He gushed and then stopped midway through looking up at me with a worried gaze. 

“Yeah, I’m good, nothing to worry about here. I’m glad that you’re excited, he’s an incredible person definitely one of my favorite people to be around. I’m thinking about traveling with him to cons this year, mostly just because I can’t stand being at home without my dad.” I tried to put on a good smile that looked genuine since I was happy to see him and talk to him. 

“Okay totally not buying that, you must be missing your dad. I can’t even begin to imagine what you’re going through hun and it’s gotta suck but you can’t just let it consume your life like I know it has. You can distract yourself all you want but it will always be there at the end of the day. I’m not saying that you have to get over it right now but you can talk about it with people. With Jeremy and with me. We won’t judge you for crying because of this tragic situation.” I hadn’t even known that Elliot was so wise and if I had been in a better emotional state I would have made a joke about it.    


“It’s not that, it’s just I had this conversation with the co-owner and my dad’s leading confidant Obadiah Stain, he came by the mansion and put all this pressure on me. He told me that I had buck up and get down into the family business. I’ve never wanted to though and now when I have to face it I just can’t bring forth the effort. I love science and I adore making technology but I just can’t see myself as the face of Stark Industries now that I have to face that. It’s so hard, having this legacy that I’ll one day have to live up to and now that I have to live up to it I can’t do it.” I put the car into drive as Elliot only looked up at me with a soft frown and his eyebrows crinkled together.    


“Well that’s a shitty thing to do to you at a time like this, he should be able to handle things himself instead of pushing you into something that you don’t want to do. You should be able to have your own life just like everybody else. I mean did you even have any fun in college at all or were you just working consistently all the time?” I got one good look at his clothes and found myself smiling when I saw that he had the sneakers on along with a pair of pink skinny jeans and a black shirt.    


“ I was studying pretty much all the time and the only fun I really had was when my roommates forced me to leave my room on the weekends for group television show night. Other than that, it was pretty much work, work, work all the time. I would also tutor Jeremy through facetime when he was struggling to get through Biology and helped him ace that class.” I softly smiled at the memories of his joking around and me trying to get him to focus on what was at hand. He was really smart but science wasn’t his forte and to be honest it was a struggle even for me to get through biology in high school.    


“So you’ve pretty much never been able to be a kid throughout most of your entire life all because you’ve known that one day you would become something that you don’t even want? Where the hell is the logic in that? It doesn’t matter if you’ve had moments of childhood deep down you were always so focused on making your dad proud of you that you completely forgot to give yourself time to breathe and be yourself.” I looked back at Elliot since we were stopped at a light and his eyebrows were drawn together while his eyes held this fire that looked unquenchable.    


“Well what am I supposed to do? Ever since I was adopted at five years old Obadiah has been breathing down my neck always reminding me of what I’m going to become. Abigail Stark, leader of Stark Industries, scientific and technological genius lover of voice acting and animation. Doesn’t exactly have a good ring to it does it? I love my dad and I wouldn’t trade him for anyone in the entire world, it’s just sometimes I wish he was just a normal IT guy or something. That he didn’t have to run an entire empire that I have to inherit the deed to. All I want is a fair chance to have a normal career and to do something that I would actually love doing, where I can marry who I want to and where nobody has to tell me what I can can’t do.” I sobbed because my life was just so horrible right now and Elliot only put his hand on my shoulder drawing small circles there to try and calm me down. 

“Why don’t you tell him that? Tell him that you couldn’t care less about running things down there and that you will find somebody better to take the helm of things? You don’t have to marry them or anything like that since you’re still just a teenager. I’m not saying that you have to do it right now, wait until Tony gets back than you can have the conversation with him too. Until then, tell this Obadiah person that you need time to mourn for your father, he’ll buy that and if he doesn’t just call me and I’ll give him a good talking to.” I laughed at the fact that this boy I hardly even knew would threaten the likes of Obadiah Satan as I referred to him as.    


“You know something Elliot? You’re really wise for somebody our age, I think it’s awesome. You’re a great friend and I really appreciate you talking to me about this stuff. I worry about bothering Jeremy with it so that’s why he doesn’t know about it. Are you excited to meet the others too? I’m really excited to finally meet Jess, it’s funny I’ve heard so many stories about him that I feel like I’ve known him as long as I’ve known Rob.” I laughed as I took a sip from my smoothie and turned down the next street.    


“I think that you should tell him because he’s your best friend and he cares so much about you. I’m not that wise, I’m just good at talking to people about what they’re feeling. I can’t wait to meet the other members of our party!! It’s going to be an amazing day for me and I can’t hardly wait, I feel like I got zero sleep last night. I’ve waited most of my life to meet Rob Paulsen and when he got diagnosed with throat cancer I thought that I would lose him before I ever did.” When that happened I remember I cried for weeks, he told me that it happened because he used his singing voice one too many times when he was younger to joke around with me but it wasn’t that funny. He got better thank god but that was still one of my biggest anxieties that it would come back and I would lose him forever. 

“I try not to think about those few months, you know I was one of the first people that he told when he got it? He sat me down for ice cream one afternoon and just told me that he was sick and he didn’t know if he would get better. I told him to be strong like Raphael and he would get better. He just laughed at me but when I got home that afternoon I cried. I was home for summer vacation that year and it broke me for a long time. Now it feels like I’m going through the same thing all over again but this one I’m actually going to lose sooner rather than later. I told you about how I met Stephen Hillenburg right? He created Spongebob and I got to meet him during my thirteenth birthday. Well, he has ALS now and he keeps getting weaker and weaker, you’ll get to meet him next week. He’s amazing and a wonderfully nice person. He’s super genuine much like his voice actors are. Hopefully we don’t run into Butch Hartman there, I can’t stand that asshole, he’s so pompous.” Elliot cocked his head to the side and then I realized who I was talking to. My dad would have laughed at that joke since he got to meet Butch when we went to an animation convention with Rob one time.    


“Sorry, forgot that I was talking to somebody who has no idea who the hell I’m talking about. Butch created Fairly Odd Parents, I was never allowed to watch it because my dad deemed it inappropriate and vial. Of course, me being the goody two-shoes that I was followed his orders and changed the channel every time I saw the opening theme. We both loved Danny Phantom though and that was created by the same guy. So of course when I heard that Rob wanted to take me on one of his conventions when I was fourteen and saw that the creator of Danny would be there I made this fanart for him. He treated me like I was insignificant and I think that really struck a chord with me. Keep in mind this was before all the controversy surrounding him and before all the homophobic-ness started to come out so I had no idea of what kind of person he was.” I explained my interactions with the creator and Elliot only gasped.    


“I used to love Fairly Odd Parents, I thought it was amazing and sometimes even better than Spongebob no offense. That’s amazing, I would have never guessed that he was like that before but now that I’m thinking about I’m remembering all the underlying themes of his shows. Thank you for telling me otherwise if we did run into him I would have had a massive fanboying out moment there and that would have been a massive contradiction to me.” I smiled at the teenage boy who was practically bouncing in his seat he was so excited. 

“Yeah no offense taken on the Spongebob front, I get that some people can find the show annoying but I wasn’t one of them. I was talking with Tom last night and we were talking about how some people find the show too obnoxious and he said that they were born with a certain compartment in their brain that can’t tolerate fun. Of course, if you knew him, you would know he was just messing around. It’s what I’m here for, I pretty much know every creator of every popular cartoon ever made. At least all the ones that I loved growing up and Danny Phantom was one of those cartoons. Just because Butch is a massive jerk doesn’t mean that he can’t make an amazing cartoon like he did with the ghost host. I didn’t even know he created Fairly Odd Parents until I looked his name up.” I smiled as I took a sip from my smoothie and thought back to the days when I would watch that infamous cartoon.    


“Okay so full disclosure time, when I was nine and that show first came out I begged my mom to allow for me to get my hair done exactly like Danny’s and I still prefer it that way. I was even him for Halloween one year that the show was going on and I’ll text you proof right now. The only reason why I stopped was because my dad started throwing a fit saying how girls should have long hair and I stopped cutting my hair like his even though I loved it. It was the first time that I actually looked like an animated character and acted like him too. Like my second option for a boy name was Danny but I didn’t want to give my dad anymore ammunition.” Okay, I would have loved that, it would have suited his personality and it just would have been fabulous. Even if his hair looked great now, it reminded me a bit of Howl’s hair in Howl’s Moving Castle. We drove up the road to Jeremy’s house and I saw him running out of the front door with his Pinky and The Brain sneakers still untied since he was probably rushing to get out of the house.    


“He’s adorable…” Elliot said wistfully but then froze as if he had regretted saying that out loud.    


“It’s alright Elliot, I’m not going to get mad at you for stating the obvious.” I laughed at him all the same as he bolted down the driveway to where my car was.    


“How many times have I told you to tie your shoes before you run like that? You could have gotten hurt.” I lectured half heartedly and he only shot me one of his multiple winning smiles that made me melt somewhere inside.    


“Sorry, I overslept slightly and had to run in order to get dressed and ready for you two. What were you two talking about? Why are your eyes red love?” He asked me and I blushed when he kissed me gently.   


“Well we started off talking about how her family unit is going and she told about what a dick Obadiah Satan is, about how he’s forcing her to be the next head of Stark Industries while Tony is away, then we changed the subject to cartoons and I told her about my obsession with Danny Phantom. I used to style my hair like his until my jackass of a father told me that he wanted for me to keep my hair long like other girls.” Elliot got him up to speed and I checked my phone letting out an awe at how adorable Elliot looked as his favorite action hero.    


“You look adorable!! Oh my god, that is one of my favorite things, he dressed up as Danny Phantom when he was nine.” I showed the image to my boyfriend and he just smiled at it. 

“You do look really cute here Elliot, I love your hair styled that way, you should put it back the way that you love it.” I watched as the boy in question blushed brightly and avoided his eyes.    


“He’s not wrong Elliot, I agree completely because I think that you look super cute. Well I think you’re cute now but that’s not my point.” Jeremy only chuckled at me handing me back my phone as I went sifting through my music. I always felt better when I drove to music even though there would probably be a lot of conversation.    


“Maybe I will get it cut again, just screw my old man. I’m almost eighteen anyways and then I can be out of that house. I already have a lot of money saved up since I work at the local science center during the school year.” I didn’t know that but found myself intrigued by the boy with long black hair and bright blue eyes.    


“I think that’s awesome!! I used to go there with my dad sometimes even had my sixth birthday there. It was an odd theming, it was Disney Princess themed and I dressed up as Belle for it. It worked though and everyone had a great time. That was one of the times that Katie I think had to come and she was Aurora obviously because they were both bland and annoying.” I laughed at my own joke finding the music that I wanted just a collection of old themes to cartoons that I grew up with and mapped where we were supposed to go.    


“Sorry, if you don’t like the playlist I can change it, I made this themed to my old favorite cartoon intros.” I reminded them as we heard the sounds of the amazingness that is the theme to The Grim Adventures Of Billy And Mandy. 

“I fucking loved this show as a kid!! I used to watch it all the time, I cosplayed as Mandy as well but you don’t want to see that I was really bad at it and looked nothing like her.” I turned on my car and started down the road as Jeremy turned to talk to Elliot who was still in the backseat.    


“I’ll bet that you looked adorable, she was Donatello one year once she got like a ton of merchandise in her bag from Rob when she first met him. What all was in there honey?” I smiled at the memory stopping at the stop light as he took my hand that wasn’t on the wheel.    


“Well let’s see, there was this leather jacket, my shoes that have Yakko on them, I have a pair with purple masks on them that I’ll wear next week, I got a Donatello hoodie from him and finally a bo staff that matched his perfectly. I learned martial arts shortly afterwards so that I could actually use the staff. I got a lot of cool things from those guys but I was Donatello at a convention the year afterwards. The same convention where I met Butch.” I tried to forget about that one since he kinda ruined the whole experience for me but I had to put that behind me and move on with my life. 

“I’ll bet that you looked super cute, like a massive nerd. Do you prefer newer Donnie in the new show or the one that you grew up with in the 2012 version?” Ah, the age old question did I prefer my Donnie snarky and sassy with a love for making technology for his brothers or did I love the adorable Donnie with a gap between his teeth, a shy nature, that same love for tech but mostly for himself and a crazy crush on April.    


“That’s really hard, I’m going to say that at least in my opinion, Rise is probably the version that’s the most like me. As much as I adore Rob and his portrayal of the character, mostly this was the writing aspect of his character but I wasn’t the hugest fan of his crush on April. I prefer him as the intellectual, snarky, sassy, loving but still knowing when enough is enough Donnie that we get to see more of in Rise. Both are adorable and my favorite turtle but if you were to twist my arm that would be my answer. I do love the newer show and what they’re doing is amazing. I had my doubts about a lot of things but it managed to thoroughly surpass my expectations. What about you Elliot? You and Jeremy both love Mikey so who’s your favorite one?” I asked my friend as I turned off the street and started driving towards the freeway.    


“Hmm that’s really hard since I started watching with the 2003 version before you were adopted. I think that my favorite just to stay current would be the one that Greg Cipes played because I also love Beast Boy so that was something I always wanted to hear was him as Michelangelo.” I smiled at the fact that was Jeremy’s favorite as well and heard the song change to Fosters Home For Imaginary Friends.    


“I loved this show, it meant a lot to me since this was one of the first cartoons I ever watched with my dad aside from Spongebob. It was creative, funny, had memorable characters some for the better others for the worst but it kept that imagination with it.” I did the Spongebob rainbow that caused my two carpoolers to grown at the fact that my jokes really sucked that bad.    


“Let me guess your favorite was Wilt wasn’t it? Mine was Bloo and I know that he wasn’t that popular but as a mischievous child he meant a lot to me. It was the first time I truly related to a character even if now that I’m older I see him as selfish and greedy.” Elliot told me with a small smile on his face and I knew what my boyfriend was going to say as his favorite.    


“Mine was actually Frankie, mostly because I could see a lot of Abigail in her. Even if she was the same age as everyone else she was emotionally mature and that matched her intelligence. I loved a lot of the imaginary friends but to me Frankie was always the best character for that reason.” I blushed because that had changed from the last time I remembered. When I was a kid he always answered that his favorite was Coco but I guess he only said that so I wouldn’t question anything.    


“Aww that’s sweet, I really loved her too. I can tell that you would have loved Wilt though Abby you kinda act a little bit like him.” I laughed at her as the song changed to one of my other favorites from a young age the opening theme to Adventure Time.    


“Okay technically this is a newer addition to the playlist and I only watched it because of Tom. He encouraged it because he said that it was a good cartoon which it was and it taught me a lot about life. My favorite other than him was Marceline the Vampire Queen.” I mentioned as the song ended and it changed to a different song American Dragon.    


“I think I put this one on here, I loved this show!! It’s probably why I still love anime to this day.” This suddenly made all the sense since I never really saw the appeal of this show and I hadn’t listened to this playlist in a long time. 

“I was alright with this series, it felt like a poor man’s Danny Phantom. I loved the fact that he was voiced by one of my favorite VA’s Dante Basco who was also the actor who played Zuko my favorite character in Avatar: The Last Airbender. I do like the opening theme though.” I started to hum the theme under my breath and we all just started singing all the lyrics to it.    


“My favorite was always Soka but I can see where your argument is coming from. With my old friends back in Colorado since there was four of us each of us took an element. My first boyfriend and girlfriend were Fire and Water, I got Earth and my best friend got air, she was our leader Zee full name Mackenzie. My boyfriend who got fire was kinda the “emo” of our friend group and we all loved him though. His name was Zachary but I called him Zacky and my girlfriend was a girl named Harmony. It was only fitting that she got water since she was all about that balance.” I was starting to freak out internally because now that I knew for a fact that she swung both ways or probably was pansexual like Jeremy was I realized that we did in fact have a chance in hell. 

“I loved all of them but again I’m going to go with the one that reminded me the most of Abby. I’ve kinda always had that comparison going even before I knew I was doing it and I look back now going what the hell were you thinking. She reminds me most of Katara with her kindness, her sometimes overly exaggerated annoyance when she gets frustrated, her ability to stand up for something that she really believes in there’s a lot of things now that I think about it.” I laughed at Jeremy with the blush high on my cheeks as the next started to play that technically wasn’t really a theme but it was a song from a cartoon. It was Garnet’s song from Steven Universe.    


“Alright after this song somebody can change it, I really love this song.” Elliot leaned back against his chair and I took in just how youthful and happy he seemed to be just talking with us as I turned onto the freeway finally only an hour and a half of driving to go.    


“Who’s your favorite of all the crystal gems? Mine is actually not someone that I see Abby as but more who I see myself as, I really love Amethyst. Sure, she’s wild, loud and sometimes obnoxious but most of the time she does it out of love for other people. She wants to fit in with the other gems even though she was created on Earth and that’s all she’s ever known. She’s still not that much older than Steven so she doesn’t really know any better.” Jeremy had a massive love and respect for the purple haired gem even if she was reckless and sometimes obnoxious.    


“I agree with you, nobody gives her enough respect. She only is trying to get attention and since Steven is there everyone just pays attention to him.” I smiled at the fact that they both had the same favorite character and I just knew nobody would guess mine.    


“My favorite is actually Pearl and not Garnet, I just really love that song because it calms down my sensory overloads. This entire playlist technically does that but Here Comes A Thought is my personal favorite. Anyways, I really do love Pearl because we’re both the worrywarts of our friend groups, before I transferred to martial arts I practiced ballet which is how I met Katie of course, we’re both naturally maternal towards those close to us and we both can sing. I just don’t do it very often because it’s a little embarrassing.” Jeremy just kissed my knuckles and I could see the soft smile on Elliot’s face that told me he wanted a piece of the action. 

“She’s going to be performing at Stephen Hillenburg’s funeral, aren’t you love? True it’s not the best of circumstances and I know how much he means to you not just as a creator but as a good friend. She loved Spongebob more than any other show on television even though she would watch things like Teen Titans and Danny Phantom when they were on she still to this day stands by what Hillenburg has created and holds it in the highest regard to animation. Who else is performing or speaking?” I smiled sadly at the fact that we were indeed having this conversation as I turned the music off for a little while.    


“Well I’m performing Ocean Man at his request, it was the first thing that I ever learned how to play on the guitar that he gave me. Once I learned all the chords he came to the mansion and just talked to me one on one since there was a lot going on during the breakfast and dinner that he had came to. Tom is speaking and performing it sounds like on behalf of the Spongebob cast and crew of course. And tragically, it looks like at this time he’s asked Butch to speak as well. To which we can just tune him out because he’s an asshole and a jerk.” My friends both laughed at me as I picked out my favorites mix that held all my favorite artists. I just drove and listened to Elliot and Jeremy bonding and talking their shared childhoods and before I knew it we were pulling up to the Warner movie lot. I looked around quickly when the car was stopped and snapped a pic of the Water Tower that I knew for memory because of the theme to Animaniacs. I looked around for the parking seeing the parking that said tour parking and I drove over there. I showed them the tickets on my phone for all six of us.   


“Three of us are still coming I believe but I texted the tickets to Rob incase he got here before we did. Which wouldn’t surprise me he was always early to these types of things.” I laughed and the guard just gave me a smile handing me the ticket that would go on the front of my Impala.    


“They were here actually just a little over ten minutes ago and should be inside already waiting for you in the VIP room. Have a lovely tour today Miss Stark!!” I waved to him driving down the winding parking lot that showed different pictures of Looney Toons characters. 

“Hey, there’s Yosemite Sam, he’s my favorite!! At least he was when I was a little girl.” I laughed at Elliot as we passed Yosemite and found a spot on his level pulling up next to the car next to us. Jeremy got out first running around so he could open both mine and Elliot’s door as I put on my leather jacket and spun around with it.    


“Stop rubbing it in, nobody as sweet and kind as you should look that comfortable in leather.” I laughed at Elliot and took my boyfriend’s hand squeezing it tightly in my hands. He maneuvered me so that I stood in between him and Elliot watching as he took my other arm comfortably. 

“I really like both of you, a lot. If that makes you uncomfortable I’ll back off.” Elliot put his hand up in surrender and I stopped in front of the elevator not expecting the tension to be broken that easily.    


“We both like you too Elliot, Abby is just a little bit shy around you since she’s not used to being around you. She’s naturally shy and I’m accustomed to helping her put herself out there and maybe I can with some assistance.” I blushed a bright pink and Elliot only smiled at me kissing my cheek gently.    


“That’s alright, my first girlfriend was really shy too so I’m used to it for the most part. Plus I think the shy ones just make them more adorable.” I smiled at Elliot through the blush on my cheeks and pushed the button that would take us up to the first floor.    


“I just realized the downsides to the two boyfriend thing, it makes me super flustered. And here I thought that the only person who could fluster me this badly was Jere-bear over here.” I joked and he just laughed mockingly at me putting his arm around my shoulders.    


“I actually don’t mind that nickname, it came from you hence why I probably don’t mind. I have a bunch of them for you so it’s only fair. Half of those I was calling you even before we started dating just two weeks ago. Was Rob happy?” I nodded my head knowing that I would have to talk with him about this and come out as demisexual since he knew my asexuality. 

“He was actually very happy, I haven’t told him much about you though Elliot. I wanted him to meet you for himself before I told him about how I’m changing my sexuality from ace to demi. Not that big of a change but I’m sure that my dad will be surprised.” I smiled as we held hands going up the flights on the elevator until we came out the top and I heard the familiar loud laughter that could only come from one man.    


“There he is… holy shit, I’m suddenly really anxious..” I felt Elliot’s hand get sweaty and I only squeezed it reassuringly. 

“He’s literally one of the chillest people ever and you’re going to love him. Come on, he’s going to want to give you a hug I’m calling it right now and I only know one man who gives them better and that’s Tom Kenny.” I pushed a lock of hair behind my ear and walked up to Rob, Maurice and Jess. Rob shot up from his seat engulfing me in a giant hug. I let go of my boyfriends hands and hugged him back just as tightly as he lifted me off the ground.    


“I missed you too.” I joked and he only laughed at me kissing my cheek hugging Jeremy as well. I went over to Jess and Maurice to introduce myself to them and trying not to fangirl out.    


“ You’ve probably heard about me from him but I’m Abigail Stark. It’s nice to meet both of you and I’m big fans of both of your works since I was a little girl. Pretty much the only video games I would play were Crash Bandicoot since others would make me a little motion sick.” I introduced myself with a small shy smile before I got a hug from Jess.    


“I’ve heard pretty much everything about you Abby, for the weeks that he got back from your big birthday that was all he would talk to me about was how amazing and kind you were. I’m sorry about what happened with your dad though I’m sure that you would also not like to think about it for one day.” I smiled at Jess and hugged him back before I got a hug from Maurice as well.    


“It’s very nice to meet you as well, he really does love you even if sometimes it’s hard to see it. You’re one of his favorite people right behind me and the weirdo over there.” I laughed at Jess’s facial expression as he stuck his tongue out very Wakko Warner like.    


“Can I just ask you one question? What was it like for both of you getting to play those iconic characters. My boyfriend Jeremy is obsessed with Brain and Wakko they were his favorites when I originally sat him down to watch the show.” I asked them watching Elliot gush over the fact that he was actually meeting Rob Paulsen and smiling at the idea that was my second boyfriend. 

“It’s amazing, I love the fact that kids like you will walk up to me and ask me to do my Wakko voice if they were raised right. That entire show while it was insane and sometimes we didn’t all get along we’re still a small family. I got the opportunity of a lifetime getting to play Crash too even if he’s mute and can’t speak you got to still kinda get inside his head. Your favorite was Coco wasn’t it? That seems like something that you would enjoy if your favorite turtle was Donatello.” I laughed at the fact that he said most of the that in Wakko Warner’s voice that I didn’t really understand until I got older that it was a pun on Ringo Starr. I nodded my head when he mentioned the female younger sister of the main character that I used to love playing as in The Wrath Of Cortex    


“I completely agree, I just walk up to most people around your age or a bit older and tell them in the Brian’s voice, the same thing we do every night Pinky try and take over the world and they laugh at me. I get to meet fans like you and see your eyes light up when I make jokes like this.” I smiled at Maurice and Jeremy came over with his Pinky and The Brian shoes on nervously awaiting to when he could speak.

“I’m Jeremy, I’m her oldest friend and her boyfriend. She showed me Animaniacs when she first discovered it and the moment I saw Pinky and The Brian it became my favorite cartoon ever so this is a really big moment for me. We dressed up as the Warner siblings with our ex-best friend Katie after practically dragging her into being Dot.” He fished out his phone finding the image that he was looking for which was my original idea that he was quick to jump on once he found out we would be using their outfits for the one with the fake argument because Jess and Tressa used to have a lot of real ones when you put them in the same booth.    


“Aww, that’s adorable, you were Yakko? I can see that, you look like someone who can talk a lot once comfortable with another person.” I blushed at the mention of my babbling and Jeremy only put an arm around my shoulders laughing at Jess’s fast quip as he showed the image to Maurice. 

“The girl that was Dot, I take it that was Katie? She doesn’t exactly look too happy here. Can I ask what happened?” I smiled sadly at the mention of the girl that I used to be really close with who was now a completely different person. Rob and Elliot joined the group right as the question was asked and Elliot answered it for me.    


“Simply put, I probably knew her the least but she was an absolute hysterical queen. And not in the Roger Taylor way in Bohemian Rhapsody where it’s adorable, no more like in the destructive way where you look at her and move to the other side of the room. She’s stuck up, annoying, a complete pothead not that it’s a bad thing it’s probably the least bad thing you could possibly do but not my point. She treated all of us like the scum underneath her boots and eventually Abby got fed up.” I took a deep breath of relief at the fact that I didn’t have to answer that question. 

“Abby got the brunt end of her evil ways though, mine wasn’t really that bad. She had to get tortured by watching me fall deeper and deeper out of her reach and I was a horrible friend to her. That’s all over now though and I’m working my hardest to try and make things right.” Maurice only pushed up his glasses and handed him back his phone.    


“Everyone makes mistakes Jeremy, the point is whether or not you can work to fix them. We’ve all had those moments where we neglect each other from work or we get busy but then there are days like this where we can all see each other and make things better. She was always ahead of you trying to please her father if the stories that Rob has told me are true.” I sat on the couch next to Rob and Elliot as the one on my right being Rob put an arm around my shoulders.    


“It’s true, she’s hands down the smartest girl that I’ve ever met the closest to an actual Donatello that there ever was aside from her father. She practically built her new car from the ground up. It’s themed to, what’s that show you watch again?” I laughed at how he was trying to relate to me as I pulled out my phone that had a picture of my car on it.    


“When I got back from MIT in May my dad had bought me this used Chevy Impala that practically needed a new everything. He wanted for me to use my head to build my first car since he taught me how to drive before I left using Happy our driver and his audi. I watch this show called Supernatural, it’s a popular show that uses ghosts and other popular lore probably most of it’s pretty shoddy but I love it. It’s one of those things that I can just watch forever.” I handed my phone to Jeremy who passed it down the line.    


“That’s so cool!! You’re really talented at technology too aren’t you? Didn’t you invent the Stark Phone?” Jess asked me and I nodded my head which was the phone he had in his hands. 

“Yeah, I’m surprised that you remembered that. My dad was struggling with coming up with a new fresh idea to use for the company and Obidah that’s my dad’s right hand man who also worked with his father was really on his case about inventing something new and different. I was about fourteen at the time and in my Junior year of high school. I had this idea, see Apple had been going downhill until they eventually went under a long time ago. What if I could invent a phone that actually worked so much better, was a lot more accurate with it’s upgrades and actually improved my product and was less expensive so even those in poverty could afford one. I invented the first Stark Phone with the help of Dum-E that’s my dad’s robot and I’ve been trying to design one myself for a little while but so far no luck. The first Stark Phone was bright pink but I made a bright red one for my father since that’s his favorite color. I begged Happy to take me down to his office where I presented him with the idea and he just loved it. So yeah, making phones was technically my idea but I let him take the credit for it because I don’t want to be the head of the industry. I don’t know what I want to do but that’s not it.” Elliot just took my hand giving it a gentle squeeze as one of the workers came out with a small nervous smile on her face. 

“Umm, Miss Stark? The room is ready for your party. You may wait in there for half an hour until we can get a set of tour guides with your group.” I nodded my head pushing off the couch where I was sitting comfortably.    


“It was a genius idea, she’s undermining herself right there. It was because of her that I’m able to afford my phone because I couldn’t get anything else since her’s were the only high quality touch screens under one hundred dollars. I grew up in poverty, still technically am in the bad side of where she lives but it’s a bit better now.” Jeremy just kissed my cheek and I blushed at him smiling because I just couldn’t help how happy I was.    


“Is there anybody else on that list of yours after today?” Jess asked me and I wondered how in the world he knew about my list.    


“Umm yeah, I have three more that I really want to meet. There’s Phil Lamarr who I grew up with since one of my favorite cartoons was Samurai Jack and Fosters Home For Imaginary Friends and my favorite one was Wilt. There’s also Craig Mccracken since my very first cartoon that I found on my own through channel surfing even before Spongebob was Powerpuff Girls. I pretty much love all of his cartoons since he’s a naturally creative person and my final one is an animator and actually his wife Lauren Faust. Other than those three I’ve pretty much met everybody either at a con or through somebody that I already know. I’m really honored to meet both of you though, I’ve spent years idolizing your work as I said earlier. I’ve had some dreams dashed and some made better this is thankfully one of the ones that I never thought would happen.” Jeremy held the door open for everyone that was behind us and I found the fruit almost instantly.    


“Didn’t you have fruit in that smoothie on the way over?” Elliot asked me with a quirked up eyebrow as Jeremy and Rob just laughed at him.    


“One thing that you have yet to learn about little sunshine over there is that she can never have too much fruit. Trust me, I know. When we had the turtles breakfast all those years ago I was amazed that she kept getting more fruit until Tony made her stop by putting his foot down. It just became one of those things that I found most adorable about her though.” I smiled faintly at the fact that he remembered my fruit habits at a young age. 

“Did you have food problems as a kid? I hear most people on the spectrum won’t eat certain things.” I nodded my head taking some of the pastries and going to sit at the front of the table in between Rob and Jess.    


“Yeah I did Maurice, I had a massive problem with food especially when I was in the orphanage because the food sucked hard over there. When I got to my dad’s mansion I was still rather picky though I did know what I loved fruit and french fries. That was when I discovered the magic of Emeril on Food Network and my entire world opened to this food universe and I was no longer picky after that.” I laughed at the old memory that I would always carry with me as Rob turned to me and I knew what was coming judging by what was in his hand. 

“Are you going to finish that croissant?” Me, Jess and Maurice all rolled our eyes while Jeremy and Elliot both laughed at him since they haven’t known him as long as we three have. 

“Geez, how did I know that was coming? I’m only kidding Rob, you’re hilarious.” I started to laugh at just how ridiculous he could be sometimes but still be the most genuine and caring person I had ever met in my entire life.    


“When you spend enough time with him like the three of us have, his jokes start to become kind of predictable. No less funny but still you start to realize a pattern most of the time they’re references to his many characters.” I nodded my head at Jess’s thoughts as he sat with me and Maurice while Elliot and Jeremy sat with Rob who was on the other side of me. 

“He’s not wrong, I saw that one coming the moment that they were sitting there on the counter.” I joked and Rob only pouted at me but that only lasted until he stuck his tongue out at me. That caused the entire table to just start laughing at how ridiculous we all were.    


“So tell us a bit about yourself in real life? Outside of what shows you’ve seen and what kind of person you are we really don’t know that much.” Maurice asked me and I could only smile in return taking one of my grapes and popping it into my mouth.    


" There’s not much to me that he doesn’t know, I skateboard when I have to time to but I need a new board in a really big way, I draw oh by the way!!” I reached into the backpack that I had taken with me and put my water bottle and grabbed the two pieces of artwork that I had rolled since they were poster sized originally and I would get them framed tomorrow so I could hang them on my wall.    


“These are for both of you, I kind of went a little bit crazy I was excited to meet you guys.” I told them and they unfolded them and I heard Jess’s cheer when he saw that I had drawn a secret handshake I came up with for Wakko Warner and Crash Bandicoot. It was somewhat complicated but I was glad that he was happy with it and by Maurice’s smile I could tell that he loved his simpler one as he took the sharpie that Rob handed him and passed it over to him where Rob wrote his part of the infamous phrase. I got them both back and I couldn’t help the tears that welled up in my eyes at just how amazing my life really was. 

“I also love to act at least I did a lot of it in high school. I didn’t really have the time for it in college but I wanted to outside of my drama classes that I took for fun. If I wasn’t a Stark I would want to be a voice actor for sure but I’ve known what I have to become since I was adopted. I love to play guitar, Stephen Hillenburg gave me this awesome Spongebob themed guitar that I still use to this day that’s a light blue and has jellyfish and flowers painted on it that he did himself.” I showed them the picture of my at thirteen opening it at the dinner table and my dad had his camera out ready to snap the moment and the big hug that the creator got afterwards.    


“She’s really close with the Spongebob cast and crew, they’re some of her favorite people. She doesn’t get that excited about regular celebrities but get her around a voice actor that she admires and she’ll just start either gushing words or tears.” Jeremy joked taking a sip from his coffee cup he had gotten from the breakfast bar.    


“It’s true, with me it was both. I thought that she was this adorable little small child who was a genius no doubt but a child at the core of her being. That was what initially drew me to her because she could be so adorable but at the same time so hardworking and determined to make people proud of her. She was closer with adults than she was with people her own age, even I could tell that because when one of the kids at the buffet said she liked her shirt, it had Abby Cadabby on it she just went to cower behind Tony like a six year old instead of somebody that was a teenager. She’s basically Eduardo from Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends.” I blushed at the story and wanted so much to just bang my head against the table but didn’t want to hurt myself unnecessarily. 

“I can see her as more of a Wilt, you did say that he was your favorite didn’t you?” Jess asked me and I nodded my head enthusiastically at the mention of my favorite imaginary friend that lived in the house.    


“He was, I could relate to the fact that I have this tendency to never want to say no to anybody. I’m also really overly apologetic to a scary degree where I’ll apologize to everyone even if it wasn’t particularly my fault. It’s probably why Katie was able to manipulate me to her will since I can’t say no to anybody. I love Wilt and Eduardo both equally though, Tom always mesmerized me as a kid when he was able to play the optimistic Sponge and the big and scary monster with a heart of gold.” I took a sip of my smoothie that I had smuggled in since I needed to finish it for the sake of my boyfriend who wanted for me to have enough to eat so I could properly function through the day.    


“I thought that it was adorable, I remember I had to take her back over to the girl where she would apologize but only because I was handing her hand to keep her grounded. She was pretty much the most adorable girl that I ever met when I was a little boy ever since I met there was just something different about the way she carried herself. She had this air of maturity that she used to carry herself even though she can talk your ear off about things that are meant for children.” Jeremy squeezed Elliot’s hand as he just smiled at me openly.    


“I haven’t known her nearly as long as Jeremy has but even I can tell that she doesn’t carry the same arrogant attitude that most people have. I just saw this small girl walking into this slumber party looking almost completely alone and she had this Donatello stuffed animal that got burned to a crisp-” Rob cut her off with a gasp since I hadn’t told him about that.    


“Yeah I was going to tell you about that, I stupidly bought Donnie with me to Katie’s sleepovers knowing what a menace she is towards my plushies but I thought what’s the worst that can happen. Sorry Elliot carry on.” I apologized to him but he only looked at me before turning his attention back to Rob.    


“And then she just left the room to do what I can only assume to cry in the restroom. But here’s the real kicker, I thought by the end of that she would need protection from me and I would do that with my life. As it would turn out, she can protect herself but for some reason I’m still drawn to her.” Jess leaned towards me with a small smile on his face.    


“I say that you should consider yourself very lucky that both of these boys care about you so much. You’re not alone Abby, you never were even I can see that. If you want to become a voice actor everyone should have that chance. It’s an amazing profession getting to play characters and act as them even when it’s a struggle to find work. Thankfully you have friends and know people who are in the business.” I nodded my head and smiled to myself at the fact that my new friend was getting along with one of my oldest and my idol in terms of voice acting.   


“The industry means the world to me since through animation I started to compare myself to characters that acted like me. As odd as it sounds, people around me tell me that I act like this odd mix of Spongebob and Donatello with a little bit of Wilt and Danny Phantom. That’s my dad’s list since he used to watch the most cartoons with me.” I thought back to all those years ago when my dad took two years off from the office to raise me to the best of his ability. We would spend hours together watching cartoons and he would teach me how to build things just like him. I missed those days probably the most right now since we were so close.    


“I’m sure that if he loved you half as much as it seems the way that you all talk about him that he’s doing damndest to get back home to you Abigail.” Maurice told me with a small smile and I nodded knowing that I would have to have faith in my father’s genius and know that one day this nightmare will be over. 

“I love my dad more than anything, he’s amazing and one of the most interesting people that I have in my life. Well aside from him.” I jerked my thumb at Rob for evidence and everyone laughed at me. 

“I’ll take that as a huge compliment to be held in the same vein as Tony Stark. Hey, by the way, I’m doing an episode of Talkin’ Toons with Bill Farmer, he’s the voice of Goofy. It should be really funny, you want to be my special guest?” I nodded my head enthusiastically and laughed at him. 

“Yes, the answer to that question is a hell yes please. Goofy was my favorite, obviously because he made me laugh and I joked that the quickest way to my heart is to make me laugh. It’s probably why I grew to love cartoons so much.” I smiled at the fact that he remembered my favorite Mickey Mouse character.    


“Can I come too?” Elliot asked me begging me with puppy dog eyes that he probably knew was my biggest weakness.    


“Alright fine, you two need to stop being so adorable it’s bad for my health.” I shot back at him and he only smirked batting his eyelashes at me.    


“Sure you two can come, she often watches me film the podcast anyways. You’re still doing the Christmas special with me right Maurice?” The man in question nodded his head stoically.    


“ Yes, but please for the love of everything holy don’t make me do anything stupid.” He begged and I found myself snickering behind my hand because if Rob was going to do anything he would make his old friend look stupid.    


“Oh I have ideas, most of them aren’t stupid they’re funny. Like one of the gags I have in mind is having Bill read dialogue from The Godfather in his Goofy voice.” I nearly bursted out laughing as did the rest of the table that I was sitting with. It was something so hilariously odd that only Rob could have possibly come up with it. 

“Okay now I’m definitely intrigued to see what he does with that. It will be funny there is no doubt about that. Do you go to his podcasts often?” I nodded my head and threw away my fruit taking one of the donuts that were up there.    


“I try to go to them as often as I can, a lot of them are really fun to witness and sometimes he even has me on as his special guest to just talk with the actors. Sometimes he has me ask them questions, it’s a lot of fun. My dad loves to make fun of me for listening to every episode that comes out. He says that since I know him in person now, there’s no longer a need for me to listen to him talk with other va’s.” I sat down back at the table and smiled to myself at the sight of the pink donut.    


“Don’t judge me Jeremy, you know that the pink ones with sprinkles are my favorite and yes before you even ask I have the maturity of a ten year old.” I remarked and he only glanced up at me.    


“I wasn’t even going to say anything Abby, you should eat more calories instead of skipping meals all the time.” He told me giving me a gentle kiss before letting me go on my merry way back to my seat. 

“You’re still doing that? I thought that we fixed that problem earlier on.” Rob was one of the few people who knew that I had trouble remembering if I had food or not and sometimes I would go the entire day without eating anything.    


“It’s not MY fault!! I get distracted by tech and working on things that need to get done. My dad has the exact same problem and says that it happens to him all the time.” I gave the same excuse that I had been giving to them since I was fourteen when I started to work a lot harder to become more like my father. 

“It doesn’t matter if Tony does it too Abby, the point is that you should take better care of yourself. You’re skin and bones if you’re asking me.” Elliot protested and he looked at me with this understanding and caring nature that he always looked at me with.    


“Alright can everyone just chill please? I’m fine and it doesn’t affect me. It’s not like I’m anorexic or anything so can we all just relax please?” I begged my small group of voice actors and my boyfriends so that they wouldn’t worry about me. I hated making people worry about me since it bothered them and made them angry with me.    


“ Nope, not changing the subject, decent try for effort though. I might not know you as well as Rob or your boyfriends but even I know that skipping every meal because you’re too busy to eat is not the right way to things. Food is essential and as much as you try to deny it you’re way skinnier than is natural or healthy.” Maurice mentioned and I knew that these guys were right and I had to start eating better and more.    


“You’re right, every last one of you that has made an argument is right. I am skinny and I’ve thought for way too long that this is the right way for me to look since I didn’t want to change anything. I’m scared of how skinny I am and I don’t know how to get better especially now that I shouldn’t even be eating at all since my dad is gone. I just don’t know how to eat more when I’m almost never hungry.” Rob just put a comforting arm around my shoulders and squeezed my right one.    


“It’s going to be okay, I’m proud of you for at least admitting your food intake is a big problem.” I smiled at Rob and found myself grinning to myself at the fact that all my friends had been around me for the rest of my life. The two tour guides came through the doors and they only looked around the room with wide eyes.    


“Hi Miss Stark, we’re going to be your tour guides for the day. I’m a big fan of your work Mr. Paulsen, well of course I am I work here at Warner Brothers Studios.” I laughed at the tour guide and could find myself flashing back to every time he met a fan.    


“Oh thank you so much, you know I work for you, that’s the best part about voice acting is I make it for the fans. Abby here is one of the main people I do it for. She changed the way that I think about my life.” I got a little bit teary eyed and Jeremy only hugged me tightly and Elliot joined in on the hug. I felt this rush of warmth and affection come over me along with the snap of several cameras that I knew were coming from Jess and Maurice since Rob was engaged in conversation with the two tour guides. I pulled back from the hug getting kisses on the cheek and looks of love from both of them. They headed out first leaving only me and Rob left in the room.    


“Are you doing anything tomorrow? There’s some place that I want to take you to I just have to check and make sure it’s okay with him.” Rob asked me taking out his phone and he kept it hidden from my view so that I couldn’t see it.    


“No, I’ve pretty much got nothing planned unless Obidah decides that’s going to be the day he forces me to become the next head of Stark Industries. I would do anything on this earth to get him away from me and off my back. Why? What’s your plan?” I asked him and he just looked at me with his soft gaze that he left almost specifically for me.    


“It’s a surprise but you’re going to love it, have you ever been to Venice beach? Because that’s the only hint you’re going to get.” I cocked my head to the side shaking it being only completely confused.    


“We’re going to pay a visit to a friend of mine who’s been dying to meet you. I thought that you could wait a little while longer but he’s one of the most down to earth people I have ever met and with how you’re struggling I think he could really help you center yourself. I think you will find you love him just as much as I do.” I only nodded my head as Jeremy waited for me along with the rest of the group.    


“Sorry about that, I wanted a moment to talk to her alone for just a second.” Rob kissed my cheek moving back up to where Jess and Maurice were as the three of us from the back caught up listening to our tour guides talking about the origins of the company.    


“What did he want to tell you?” Jeremy asked me as he held the door open for me and Elliot to pass through.    


“He said that he’s taking me to Venice Beach tomorrow for something. I have no idea as to what but I’ll keep you two posted in case he decides that’s the proper time to kill me.” I joked and Rob only rubbed his hands trying to look menacing but not succeeding at all. 

“You’re not scary Rob, you’re about as terrifying as a teddy bear.” Maurice teased his old friend and I could see the joyment that was happening in Rob’s eyes as the movie screen went down and we all looked at a history of the studios. I watched the video pass me by and couldn’t help but smile at them as I saw a lot of my favorite films pass by and it ended with one of my heroes Ellen Degeneres introducing us to the studios tour.    


“I will be your main tour guide today if you will follow me and i’ll get to know all of you since it’s not a big group.” The girl named Phoebe I realized showed us to the door and handed all of us our VIP lanyards. 

“So obviously, all of you are huge fans of animation. Were there any other movies that you really loved in that video?” Phoebe asked us and I smiled at her raising my hand.    
“I saw a clip from Willy Wonka, didn’t the company just produce and ship that movie out? I thought that it was created mostly independently since nobody wanted to work on it.” I asked and the studio guide just gave me a high five for knowing that little fun fact.    


“You’re absolutely right Abigail, we only published that movie and shipped it out to the world. It was created by a small filming company since nobody wanted it because of the original author Roald Dahl. It was made by the company Wolper Pictures and we distributed it along with Paramount. Nice job on that one though, what about yourself?” She asked Jeremy and Elliot next as they were on either side of me.    


“I really love Harry Potter, I’m a Ravenclaw.” Elliot told her and she only smiled at him giving him a high five.    


“We Ravenclaw’s got to stick together am I right? I adore Luna Lovegood, she’s just the perfect reasons as to why Ravens are the best house.” Phoebe gushed about the Ravenclaw’s to which my boyfriend was a Ravenclaw as well. 

“Hey Abby, didn’t you want a golden retriever?” Rob asked me from where he was avidly still typing on his phone.    


“Umm yeah, since I was nine, why asking? My dad said that I could get one when I graduated college but I got the car instead. I always loved retrievers and huskies, I’m an animal lover what can I say?” I laughed to myself wondering what on earth he could possibly be planning back there.    


“Just checking for posterity, you’re going to love it I can’t tell you what it is though. That’s the point of something being called a surprise.” Okay so he wouldn’t tell me it was time for my powers of deduction skills. Who lived in Venice Beach, that had an obsession with animals, and knew Rob probably through work? Jeremy pulled on the sleeve of my leather jacket as Phoebe moved back there to engage them in conversation.    


“What’s up Jere-bear?” I asked him and he lowered his voice to the point where only me and Elliot could hear him.    


“I think I know what it is, doesn’t Greg Cipes live up in Venice Beach?” I gasped at the sheer fact that I could possibly meet him sooner than intended as well.    


“Can he not come next week Rob? Is that why you want to take me to meet him instead? He has a recording day that day doesn’t he? Damn it Cartoon Network and their pathetic inability to play anything but Teen Titans Go.” I started asking a million questions a minute and Rob only glanced up at Jeremy before glaring at him.    


“Jeremy, you ruined the surprise, how did you do it that fast?” I looked at my boyfriend for validation with my eyebrow raised.    


“I might have seen him there the last time I was with my mom. He was meditating on the beach so I didn’t want to bother him with me being a stupid fanboy without you to be my blocker Abby since you would be right there with me.” I listened to him tell his story about seeing one of our favorite voice actors just meditating on the beach at one with himself and with nature. 

“He’s not working that day, he told them that he wanted to do something for a fan i.e you that day. And for someone who’s main guilty pleasure is the show in question I don’t think you have the rights to complain.” Rob reminded me and Elliot just looked at me with slight betrayal in his eyes. 

“You watch that garbage? But you love the original, I thought you grew up with it?” I wanted so badly to slap my old friend upside the head for mentioning that show and that I watched it but I was already in too deep for that.    


“Alright fine, it’s my main guilty pleasure cartoon, it’s still the same voice actors and half the time that’s what makes me laugh in the show. It’s not good, oh it’s garbage but I really do love Greg Cipes and he makes it worth it since Beast was one of the few characters that didn’t go through the drastic change. Probably since he’s where most of the comedy came from him in the original show. I know you’ve probably just lost all your respect for me somewhere but here’s the kicker, he watches it too.” I gestured to Jeremy and he only gasped at me for ratting him out as the tour guide only laughed at the three of us.    


“Big fan of the original Teen Titans? You know we created that cartoon here, right over in our animation studio. If I were allowed to take you all down there I would but I’m not.” Phoebe said sadly and I could only smile at her kindness as she noticed all my Animaniacs gear I had on.    


“Where did you get that?! I love your shoes!!” I laughed at her and couldn’t help but brag about this since I so rarely got the opportunity.

“When I turned thirteen he decided that it would be a great idea to get all my favorite voice actors together for my birthday at the Nickelodeon Hotel that used to be in Orlando that tragically doesn’t exist anymore. Every voice actor that was there had a massive gift bag for me and these were part of Rob’s. I also got to meet Tom Kenny, Doug Lawrence who plays Plankton over on Spongebob, the original creator Stephen Hillenburg and Caroline Lawrence. I’ve been obsessed with cartoons since I was a little girl especially Teen Titans, the 2012 Ninja Turtles, Fosters Home For Imaginary Friends, Powerpuff Girls and Spongebob. Those are pretty much my favorites right there.” I listed off all my favorite cartoons and where I had gotten both my leather jacket.    


“Oh that’s soo cool!! I’ll bet that you were really happy that day, that’s incredible. Who’s the biggest celebrity that you’ve ever met?” I mentally face palmed because I never had an answer to this question.    
“Most of the people that she’s wanted to meet and has met are voice actors. She’s never been interested in the mainstream Hollywood acting and would prefer to watch the Annie’s over the Oscars any day of the week.” Jeremy explained to her and Elliot just leaned his head on my shoulder. 

“I love that about you actually, that you don’t know who most of the popular actors are but you’ll gush about the reasons why Rob and Greg Cipes are masters of their craft.” I blushed bright pink at that because while it was true it didn’t make it any less embarrassing.    


“I’ve tried to pretend to be normal, it never really worked out for me. I’ll always be drawn to the realm of voice acting and discovering new talents that deserve the utmost respect. I’ve always been in love with Greg because he changed the voice acting relm to me and made me laugh harder than any other character at the time other than Spongebob.” I remembered sitting on the couch with my dad and laughing at Beast Boy’s expressions as they changed and he started screaming at Raven usually.    


“It’s true she did try to be normal of course normal meant acting more like everybody else. And the only person that’s around her at the time was Katie so she thought that acting like her would make hre more normal.” Jeremy remembered those two months when I acted like Katie that I now regret deeply in my soul. She had me do horrible things to other people and she would abuse me to make me regret it.    


“But, you’re you now and that’s what is most important to others and to yourself. I admire that a lot in a person, you’re who the animation is made for.” Phoebe told me as she opened the door to us and we all piled into the cart that would take us around the lot.    


_ “Alright lady and gentlemen, fasten your seatbelts just for this first drive out. This cart doesn’t usually go that fast but for the first couple of minutes you are needed to fasten your seatbelts. You’re all from around here, I know that for a fact but I want to know your favorite things that were created here at these studios. Who here loves the movie Casablanca? That was made in our lucky studio number seven!!”  _ I had watched that movie every New Years Day with my dad and it was one of my favorite memories that we spent time with together. 

“That’s amazing I never knew that movie was even made here. I watch that movie every New Years Day with my dad.” I moved a lock of hair behind my ear that had slipped out of my side ponytail. 

“I never knew that you did that with him, I think that’s amazing. If he’s not back by then we’ll watch it together with Elliot.” Jeremy told me and took my hand as I was on the outside with Rob and Jess next to me and Maurice behind us talking with Elliot.    


“I think you two should go out together tomorrow, I’ll send you texts, pictures and video if I can. You two know each other the least and I want for us to be happy together.” I mentioned to him and he only smiled at me drawing tiny circles into my hands. 

“Of course, I’m sure that you’ll have a great time meeting my favorite voice actor without me…” He pouted and I just rolled my eyes at my best friend turned boyfriend.    


“ You’re going to meet him next week, geez it’s not like I could tell that he was going to pull this. I should have figured though considering I was sick when both he and Phil Lamarr were on Talkin’ Toons. God that summer sucked!!” I ranted about the summer I had gotten really sick with phenomena that pretty much put me out of commission for the rest of the summer. 

“I know it did, you were really excited when I sent you the text that they were both coming on. I’ve told Phil and Greg both a lot about you no surprises there since you’re one of my favorite people and so are they. I’m excited for you to meet him, he’s going to love you I just know it.” Rob told me nudging my leather jacket as we stopped in front of all these buildings.    


_ “ _ _ These buildings in front of you and on your left are some of our most famous ones that we’ve used for our films. You’ll see the buildings that we used for Jakob’s apartment that Newt blows up accidentally.”  _ I looked at said building in awe of my surroundings as I took out my phone to hit a bunch of pictures since I loved that movie more than anything and it was my favorite genre in the Harry Potter franchise. We stepped off the cart and I followed my group around the lot taking pictures of everything under the sun.    
“Take it easy on the photo’s there girly, it’s not going to fly off and leave the lot.” I rolled my eyes at Jess’s wisecrack and couldn’t help but smile at him. 

_ “Our lot is one of the oldest in movie history and we’ve filmed multiple episodes of just random shows here like the ending to Seinfeld. We didn’t film the show here tragically as that would have been a great asset but we filmed the final episodes here.”  _ I was intrigued by that considering I had watched a ton of Seinfeld’s with my dad.    


“Wow, I never knew that either that show was one of the ones I used to watch with my dad when he got sick and tired of cartoons and animation. It was either that or Mork and Mindy.” Jess gave me the high five from reaching over Rob to which he only smiled and shook his head at the younger voice actor.    


“My kinda girl, except your favorite is Yakko instead of Wakko.” He pouted and Rob only smirked jokingly and playfully at him.    


“That’s because Abby over here has a little something called good taste and class.” He teased and Jeremy only laughed at them interacting with one another causing me to smile and think what was my life.    


“If it makes any difference to you Jess, Wakko was my favorite as a kid. The only reason why Abby wasn’t a big fan of him was because she was confused as to what the joke was behind his voice.” Rob just smiled at me kicking my foot with his that had his own Yakko Warner sneakers on.    


“Do you think that you’re going to cry tomorrow when you meet him?” I nodded my head because most likely that would be the case that happens.    


“Probably, I’ll take a bag of kleenex with me just in case that happens. If he does Beastie which he probably will then no doubt childhood me is going to be a sobbing mess. I can’t thank you enough for doing this for me Rob, this overtakes everything else just giving me the time to meet him and getting me a dog. Sometimes I truly think that you are the kindest person on the planet.” Rob just put an arm around my shoulders supportively and kindly.    


“Hey, it’s just me being a good parental figure in your life since Tony is away. Plus you’re going to need an animal now that you’re on your own for the time being. When he gets back and he has a problem with it than he can answer to me alright? Or Greg since I’m sure that the two of you are just going to instantly click and start talking to one another.” I laughed at just how believing he was that I would bond with one of my all time favorite heroes.    


“What are you going to name it?” Elliot asked me from behind me suddenly watching and listening to the tour guide talking about the history of the buildings.    


“If it’s a golden retriever her name will be Belle if it’s a girl and I haven’t really thought about a boy.” Jeremy laughed at just how deep my abiding love for Beauty And The Beast went.    


“ You’re adorable, that’s it, it’s officially. Maybe for a boy you could name it Adam, that is the rumored name that the fandom gave to the Beast.” I nodded my head at Elliot’s thoughts as I looked at Rob’s phone and saw that Greg’s icon was his dog wingman.    


“Okay, that suits him perfectly right there, he really loves that dog. I wish I could have seen him growling at CJ, he’s such a great and nice cameraman. I really can’t wait until I get the chance to meet him and get my doggie. I’ve pretty much always wanted one but my dad wanted to wait until I was old enough to hold that responsibility to take care of him.” I laughed mostly to myself and Jeremy just kissed my cheek.    


“You’re so cute, your babbling is the most adorable thing. If she does that tomorrow Rob you’ve got to get it on video. I need more of it in my life her words are so calculated.” Jeremy made Rob promise to him and I just gave him this look that said if you dare do this I will make you regret it for the rest of your life.    


“You’ve got it, I think I still have your number from all those years ago.” Rob promised and I wanted nothing more than to just snatch the idea from his brain because this would humiliate me to no end.    


“Oh I soo want a piece of this!! How do I get on it?” Elliot asked them and I just groaned wanting someone on my side of this argument.    


“I’ll text it to you, well we’ll probably be together tomorrow is that cool?” Elliot blushed and nodded but I could see by the look on his face that he was really genuinely happy. I couldn’t for the life of me want to destroy his happiness so I knew that I would just have to suck it up.    


“Fine, do whatever I want but if Pepper somehow gets her hands on it there’s no way it’s not going on my Twitter account and then I will be forever immortalized as a massive fangirl in front of my thousands of followers. I’m happy that most of them followed me for my talking about cartoons though instead of my last name.” Jeremy just kissed my knuckles and I knew that he would keep this to himself once it happened. I just hoped that I wouldn’t make too much of a fool of myself in front of him. 

“I’m so jealous that you get to meet him before we do but you’ll have a great time. He seems like such a genuine and caring person towards those who love his work and since when do you skateboard?” Elliot asked me as she switched places with Jess after sending him the puppy dog look once we got on the tram again so the three of us could talk.    


“I learned to skateboard from my dad when I was a little girl because when he was younger, emphasis on that word, he was really good at it. He falls off the board and I just go coasting like a pro. I’ve always been a natural with balance and things like that where my dad has failed, another thing I really love doing especially in Hawaii is surfing.” I loved the water just not really here because it was freezing ass cold unless I was with Jeremy the natural heater.    


“She is really good at surfing, here I’ll show you a video.” Jeremy pulled out his phone as the cart started to move again down the aisles of the studios that were open.    


_ “So this is where we film all of popular series, to your left is Big Bang Theory, we film Ellen right in here and she’s not currently filming, she’s going to be here later around the same time you guys have lunch so you might get to meet her in that room you were already in.”  _ Phoebe explained to us and I smiled at the fact that I would get to meet one of my favorite hosts for reality television. Jeremy nudged my shoulder happily because he knew how often I watched her show on my phone.    


“I hope we do get to meet her, I hear that she’s really nice to people who are queer.” Elliot said wistfully and I couldn’t help but chuckle at him wanting to see his reaction if she did show up.    


“He’s going to give you your old gift basket tomorrow, he had the most awesome stuff in there by the way. I think he even beat out me and I gave you a bo staff.” Rob pouted and I couldn’t help but giggle at just how childish he looked. 

“As long as this gift basket has a new skateboard we’ll be cool. My old one is pretty much trash at this point, I made it themed to Teen Titans and got to paint it to look like the logo. I’ve got a picture of it ten years ago and now.” I showed them the picture and heard the low whistle from Elliot.    


“Yeah that looks pretty bad, you did an amazing job with the bubble letter paint though for an eight year old.” I smiled at the compliment as we continued to drive down the road and stopped in front of a big building.    


_ “So right through that door is where we keep our main exhibits right now we have Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts upstairs and the DC universe downstairs. You’ll have an hour to a parauze around, get your house sorted by the sorting hat which is AMAZING if you are a Harry Potter fan.”  _ I smiled to myself knowing that would be one of the first things that I did.    


“So we know that you adore animation, that’s kind of a no brainer on that one. What’s your favorite artist in terms of music?” Jess asked me and I knew this answer off the top of my head.    


“It’s Queen, my favorite band is Queen no doubt about that. They can do just about any style of music and pulled it off without a hitch. In terms of solo artists I really love Elton John and Ed Sheeran, he’s about the only modern artist that I will actually listen to because he’s the only one with any solid talent. My favorite member of Queen is the one that I relate to the most is probably Brian May. There’s something about the fact that he’s a doctor in astrophysics yet he chooses to be an electric guitar player that always inspired me. That even if you have a degree in a certain thing that doesn’t limit your options and I’ve kept that faith with me that something amazing will come along and change my life.” I gushed about my favorite three artists that took me by the hand and each taught me something different that I hadn’t known about myself before. 

“It’s true, when Bohemian Rhapsody came out last year she practically dragged me to go and see it with her multiple times because she loved it so much. She would just sit there laughing at the dialogue and singing all the popular songs that were playing throughout the movie.” Jeremy reminded my friends holding the door open for me and Elliot nearly made a beeline for the top floor as I followed him.    


“You really like him don’t you?” I was startled out of my stupor of watching my boyfriend run around excitedly taking pictures when Maurice who had been relatively quiet so far asked me something.    


“Yeah I do, it’s really weird and I don’t know how my dad is going to react. He’s never liked Jeremy even before started dating and I can’t imagine how he’s going to feel about me dating two people. The weird thing though, it’s that I really couldn’t care less about what he thinks is right for me in this scenario. For once in my life I am truly happy with something that I’m doing. I’ve never felt like I was making a right decision for myself before now but this feels right like I should be doing this and I’m not even going to care if my dad doesn’t understand it. He’s not here right now and I can’t let the fact that I’m a Stark hold me back from the things that make me happy.” I watched as Elliot excitedly started to gush about the importance of Newt’s validity in the Harry Potter world to anybody that would listen to him.    


“I think that when he sees how they interact with you and the way that they treat you he won’t be that worried anymore. I’m sure that he’ll be a little bit concerned at first because of the way that you were raised and his previous assumptions about Jeremy from when he was a little kid. People grow up and they change. Clearly while you were away at college, that’s what happened and he had a wakeup call. You shouldn’t let your last name stop you from being yourself and if this makes you happy than he as a parent and a father should understand that.” I listened to one of the most inspiring voice actors to me and never really knew just how down to earth and able to listen he was.    


“You know something Maurice? You’re a really great person, not what I expected at all. I don’t really know what I was expecting but this certainly wasn’t it. Thank you for bringing the Brain to life for my boyfriend and just being a good listener to me.” I thanked the man and caught up to my boyfriends that were running around and taking pictures of everything.    


“Is there some room for me in this as well or are you two just going to hog all the pictures to yourselves?” I teased and Elliot turned around moving me so I could get a picture of my favorite character’s costume Sirius Black.    


“How did you know he was my favorite? Jeremy must have told you, my other favorite is Remus, I would love for him to be my teacher of defense against the dark arts. I’m just a sucker for both of them though.” I blushed when Elliot only kissed my cheek and held my hand. Jeremy took my other one and I felt this overwhelming warmth and affection for both of my boyfriends. 

“Her all time favorite is Newt though, I mean obviously because she’s a Hufflepuff and a Ravenclaw.” I nodded my head and followed them around the exhibit looking at everything before we hit the forty minute mark and I got in line so I could get my house declared. 

“Have you taken the house quiz on the Pottermore website?” The attendant asked me and I nodded Rob taking the video of the entire thing.    


“Which house did you get? Usually this guy can be pretty accurate or you could end way off the grid of what you got.” I pushed a nervous lock of hair behind my ear and smiled shyly.    


“I got Hufflepuff one time and Ravenclaw the other so it could go either way.” I waited just a moment for the jurisdiction that the hat would have for me. 

_ “Hmm this is most interesting, just and loyal but also intelligent and creative. You seem to be more intelligent and creative, Ravenclaw!!”  _ I gasped at how that had changed but it made sense since that was my dad’s house and I had changed a lot since I was nine and I first took the quiz.    


“Well, that’s changed now hasn’t it? Jeremy why don’t you go next? I think you’re more the Hufflepuff type.” My boyfriend moved to sit in the chair and stood next to Rob rewatching the video and smiling at just how happy I looked being here. 

_ “Hmm just and loyal… Hufflepuff!!”  _ My boyfriend took the house with pride and it made the most sense to me since he was the most kind and genuine person I had ever met. Elliot went next getting the house that we were expecting and I couldn’t help the grin on my face that reminded me so much of my childhood me.    


“Okay, got that out of our systems, I think it’s about time to go and meet the rest of the crew downstairs.” Rob led the way to where Phoebe was engrossed fully in conversation about comics with Maurice and Jess.    


“Everyone ready to go? We have some stops to make at shows that film here next and we can walk there.” Phoebe led the way to the outside again as we all walked down the lane looking at all the filming studios as she opened the one to Ellen for us.    


“This is as everyone knows, where the lovely Ellen films her show twice a day, once earlier in the morning before you all got here and once in the afternoon but she pretends it’s tomorrow. The seats here are much nicer than most of others because she wanted for her guests to be comfortable. You can actually purchase tickets online, they’re all free for purchase and it’s actually a really fun experience.” She explained to us showing us around the infamous studio that I loved watching every morning. She then let us out of the studio as we looked around at another one, The Big Bang Theory. I wasn’t that into the show because of the way it treated people with my disorder and social anxiety in general. It amazed me how people continued to watch such a horrible show. We got back on the tram and went by the water tower and I knew judging by the smirk on Rob’s face what was about to happen.    


“Hey Elliot, want to hear Yakko’s Nations Of The World?” He turned around to face the boy that I was sitting next to as his eyes lit up excitedly.    


“Would you really? I would love that but was too afraid to ask.” Phoebe asked him as my boyfriend nodded his head rapidly trying to convey just how excited he was. Rob began to sing the song that everyone on our tram knew by heart and I started to sing it with him when he just sent me the look that I instantly recognized as join in. He would always sing this song no matter who asked him even if it was just a random person on the street. It was just the kind of nice genuine person that he was. We got through the entire song when it looked like Jess had an idea this time. 

“If you get to do your song then there’s no reason why I can’t sing mine for Jeremy since somebody here loves Wakko.” He said it in Wakko’s voice that pretty much always made my boyfriend laugh and started to sing the old song that helped my best friend get through high school geography when he had to learn all the states and their capitals for the final. 

“What was your favorite quote from Spongebob as a kid?” Maurice asked me once Jess had finished and the tram started moving again. 

“Well my favorite was when he created the bubble man from bubbles and he says, with imagination I can be anything I want. That’s the message that I’m going to miss the most when we lose Stephen Hillenburg, that imagination is alright. I was an extremely over imaginative child so having Spongebob showed me that it was okay to be that way and to accept that side of my brain that would rather pretend my favorite animated characters were real than be with other people. My favorite ones was pretending I was a Warner sibling, a Teen Titan or a Ninja Turtle.” I hadn’t even realized that I was gushing about my childhood games that I would play until the tram suddenly stopped and we were in front of a new building.    


“This is our prop building over on your left there and my favorite part of the regular tour. We house thousands of props from different shows and movies in here and you can go through the entire thing a million times and not see everything.” Phoebe lectured and I smiled at my friends hopping off the tram as Jeremy kissed my hand and Elliot did the same to the one that he was holding causing me to flush. We walked throughout the props taking various photos with random things that we found and laughing as we made Rob president and I felt like texting that to Pepper.    


_ Me: He’d make easily the best president that I’ve ever seen in my life, he’d make Yakko’s Nations Of The World the new national anthem and I can’t complain about that. I wish you could have come with us Pep, it’s really amazing, you would love it. How are you holding up?  _ I knew that my dad meant a lot more to Pepper than just a boss and she was really torn up about him leaving the way that he did.    


“Texting the Pep?” I laughed at Rob as he looked at my icon on my phone which had the woman in question with my father’s arm around her. It was one of my favorite things in the entire world since it was on our first vacation where I felt like we were a true family.    


“Yeah, I’m really worried about her you know? She means so much more to me then just my dad’s secretary. She’s the mom that I never truly got to have and I know that she loves my dad just as much if not more than I do. I think Pepper is just acting like it doesn’t bother her for my sake because she thinks that I’m suffering more and whatnot.” Rob just put his arm around my shoulders and I giggled as Jeremy instructed Elliot to take a selfie with him and the naked women that were behind the president's desk. I felt my phone buzz in my pocket and reached to check it smiling. 

_ Pepper: Oh god, that’s priceless!! Thanks kiddo, I think I really needed to see that. I’m sorry to have turned you down Abby, it’s just I find it so hard to have fun right now while I don’t know whether your father is alive or dead. I think that you should be happy though because he would want you to be. Girls day tomorrow?  _ I sighed I would have to turn her down and I always loved girls days and I moved so that I could get away from the rest of the group for a moment. 

_ Me: I’m really sorry Pep but I can’t tomorrow, maybe the day after? Rob is taking me to Venice Beach so I can meet Greg a week earlier than planned because he thought that it would be helpful for me. They’re also getting me a dog!! I’ll finally have the golden retriever that I wanted when I was a little girl. I think that I’m responsible enough to care for my own critter. I really can’t wait to meet him, I’ve been wanting to before you even came into the picture I was six when I watched Teen Titans for the first time.  _ I apologized to Pepper for not being able to make it for girls day since it was one of the few times I was able to go all out and it would actually be really helpful before I left for New York next Friday. I checked through my email seeing one from Joan about the script.    
_ Dear Abby, _

_ We sent the script out yesterday so you should get it within the next couple of days. We added in all the elements that you wanted and we actually created a whole new muppet if you check our Twitter. Please let us know if you have any last minute ideas before tomorrow so we can edit the script before you get here.  _ _   
_ _ Sincerely,  _ _   
_ _ Joan.  _ While I was reading the email I also got an update from Pepper that caused me to start to smile.    


_ Pepper: Oh that’s fine, I’m sure that you’ll have a great time and you’ll finally be getting that dog you always wanted. I’m sure that he’ll be very helpful to you during this time. I know how much you love your Beast Boy and Michelangelo. What about Elliot? I really liked that boy, I think your father will too. He might be a little bit of a dick about it at first because you’re growing up so fast but he’ll come around I’m sure of it.  _ Pepper always knew exactly what to say to make me feel better about a situation as I leaned against the pillar behind me. 

_ Me: Elliot is actually amazing, like I’m amazed by him eighty percent of the time about how kind but also wise and intelligent he can be. He’s a Ravenclaw too by the way we have that in common as well. OH, we got our houses sorted, I’m no longer a Hufflepuff, it looked like the hat was mystified by me though. Me, Elliot and Jer are actually dating now. I know it’s fast but you know what? I’m not nervous or scared about it like how I usually would be. Usually I’d be wanting to put the breaks on this thing and get the hell out but I’m actually really happy with how things went down between us. I’m undeniably happy Pep, like I feel as though I’m dreaming but then I look at them and they just smile at me and I melt into a puddle. I feel as though I’ve written myself into a romantic comedy.  _ I laughed at just how cliche my feelings were towards the two boys that had equally stolen my heart faster than humanly possible as my phone started blowing up in the group chat with various images of my boyfriends being goofy. I grinned to myself and pushed a lock of hair into my ponytail undoing it and sticking the ribbon in my pocket just shaking out my normal straight hair and let it flow past my shoulders. I caught up to the rest of the group just as they got back on the tram.    


“What happened to you? You missed out on all the fun baby, I wanted to take goofy pictures with you.” Jeremy pouted but helped me back onto the tram squeezing my hand.    


“Sorry Jer-bear wanted to text Pepper and make sure that she was okay. She bailed on me at the last minute it seemed today but she promised she would make it up to me. I told her we were dating, that’s true right? I’m not getting polarizing information? Rob will tell you that I’m not the most observant person on the entire planet.” I heard the laughter from the seat ahead of us as he turned around to face us to yell at me.    


“It’s true!! You could do with being a little bit more aware of people’s emotions and the situations that you’re in.” I laughed at Rob as Elliot only squeezed my hand and kissed my cheek.    


“Of course we’re dating, I don’t just hold hands with everyone you know. It would ruin my bad boy reputation.” I laughed at the thought of Elliot being anything but a total sweetheart as my phone buzzed from my pocket. I reached in there and took it out glancing at what Pepper had sent me.    


_ Pepper: That’s amazing!! I’m so proud of you honey, it’s incredible how much you’ve grown since you were seven years old and still bouncing around singing to Teen Titans and wanting to dress up as Raven with Jeremy as your Beast Boy for Halloween. They love you so much, maybe Elliot hasn’t realized it yet but it’s all in the way that he looks at you. I can’t lie and say that I’m not jealous, I can hardly snag one guy but yet you get two?? How did you do it? Teach me your ways oh wise one _ … I laughed at Pepper realizing how she was almost back to her old sarcastic self that I loved deeply.    


“I’m sure that you’re all hungry from running around and it’s been around three hours since this tour has started. We’ll spend the last two maybe at the animation studio or at the wardrobe center. I actually forgot that I have a friend who’s an animator down there and he can get us in.” Phoebe told us and I stopped walking around along with Elliot and Jeremy turning our heads to look at her.    


“You wouldn’t get in trouble for doing that? I would love to see what they’re working on but the costume center sounds epic. I want us to get to see the actual costumes.” Elliot was really excited about the costuming and I nodded my head at him because while I wasn’t at all interested in clothing and apparel he was. 

“I’m with Elliot here, it’s okay that we can’t see the animation studio. I can live, besides it’s probably all Teen Titans Go stuff anyways.” I tried to joke and everyone just laughed at me rolling their eyes.    


“You know, they actually make that at the regular studio and not here. In fact, they’re working on a secret cross over that you might have heard about.” I rolled my eyes because yes I had heard about it and was tricked yet again by assholes.    


“Yes I’ve heard, I thought that it was going to be season six and I was so freaking excited because I want a CLEAR ENDING to my favorite cartoon. Is that so hard for those people to understand?” I shook my fist at the sky playfully and Jeremy just shook his head at me.    


“Admit it, the thing that you were most excited about season six was the fact that BeastBoy and Raven would have gotten together.” Jeremy teased poking my cheek as I just playfully scowled at my boyfriend.    


“Oh please honey, like you wouldn’t have been right there with me. We were BeastBoy and Raven for Halloween all those years ago. A lot of the time I shipped them more than the two main characters since while they were cute and obviously canon I was more into the different ones that spoke to me.” Elliot only nodded his head and Rob snarked from behind me.    


“Again, you watch the show and you have no room to complain. Neither one of you do.” I stuck my tongue out at my old friend for yet again selling me out like the jerk that he could be sometimes. 

“I do watch it but only because of Greg and Tara since they’re still the best things about the show. Maybe I just see it through rose colored glasses or whatever because I grew up with them in the original show but they mean so much to me. I know that I sound like a child, talking about cartoons like they’re real people.” Jess moved up to the three of us where we were talking.    


“I think that it’s intriguing to see a girl your age who knows about the animation industry. I take it that you’ve thought about doing it yourself?” I nodded my head almost shyly since it was a little embarrassing talking about this.    


“Of course I have, it’s why I pushed myself even though I was drowning in work throughout my high school years to join their theater community and be their leading lady for the three years that I was there. It’s impossible though. I have to be a Stark, I didn’t get that doctorate in engineering and scientific technology to waste it on being a messily voice actor. At least, that’s what my father’s right hand man would tell me. It doesn’t matter what I want. I’ve known since I was five years old what having the Stark name would mean in the future. I can’t even imagine the look on my father’s face, yeah dad I know I’ve already been to college but hear me out what about voice acting. He’d laugh at me.” I fidgeted with the bottom with the bottom of my leather jacket out of a nervous habit. Rob and Maurice both caught up with the rest of the group and Phoebe looked like she wanted to say something to me but didn’t know how to word her sentence without sounding like she was breaching a boundary somewhere.    


“Abby…” Elliot looked like he wanted to add something but Jeremy just shook his head at him knowing it probably wouldn’t get him anywhere.    


“I know that I hardly know you as well as some of the others maybe even Jess since he’s a lot more goofy than I am and better with fans. But, if you want to act, you have enough people around you and enough fans to get you off the ground running. And if you’re as talented as the videos that I’ve seen Rob than it shouldn’t be long before you’re going to cons the same as all of us.” I looked up at the voice actor for the Brain and he seemed like he was actually being genuine.    


“Yeah, about that, remember that turtle you drew that you showed me all those years ago?” I blushed almost embarrassed at what I thought was a forgotten memory being brought up again.    


“Tragically yes, please don’t tell me what I think you’re going to. If you actually showed them that sketch you will be demoted and Doug will take your place don’t think I won’t do it.” I threatened half heartedly as he pulled out his phone and showed me the sketch that the creator and main character designer made. I loved how they made this iteration each different species and mine looked to be a sea turtle in a bright pink mask.    


“JJ drew this when I told him about how you were coming in and he loved the idea. We don’t want to give every kickbutt quality to April this time around and I know a bunch of turtle fans that would love to see an actual female turtle. We haven’t come up with a backstory yet so that might take a little while.” I thought back to that first episode where we had met all the characters in this version and I reached down to pinch my lower arm letting out a yelp of pain.    


“Nope, not dreaming okay this is legit? Tell him that I’ll talk to him next week when I get down there with everyone. That looks amazing though, can I see her again?” I looked at the sea turtle with light blue eyes and a pink mask with pink stun guns attached to a security belt around her waist. She had freckles of a darker green all over her exposed skin that looked suspiciously like my own. 

“This is amazing Abby!! It could be your big break, if you just handle it with respect like I know you will. I for one, when I was still a girl always wanted a smart female turtle who would actually understand what Donnie was saying.” I laughed at Elliot as Phoebe held the door open for us and I sat down in between my two boyfriends and across from the voice actors. 

“I think that you would make an incredible voice actor Abby, we’ve seen a lot of your shows through Rob when he went to that rehearsal for Evita he filmed a good majority of it without getting in trouble somehow. You’re great at emotions and bringing a character of fiction to life with only your imagination to work with.” I smiled at Jess as waiters came into the recreation room carrying waters. I had a water bottle in backpack that I had steadily been drinking for the past three hours but I was still thirsty since that had been gone for quite some time. As I glanced at the menu of course, I realized that there wasn’t a vegetarian thing on there. 

“I know that look, having the struggle of finding things to eat that fit your specifications?” Rob asked me and I nodded my head faintly. It was hard finding things that were so obviously better for me health wise but everyone else looked at me weirdly.    
“Wait, you’re veggie?” Elliot asked me and I slowly nodded not really wanting to retell my horror story.    


“Yeah, I’ve been vegetarian since I was six let’s just say that I saw something absolutely repulsive and couldn’t eat meat after that. I could never go full vegan, I think I love bread and cheese too much to do that to myself.” Jeremy just snickered at me since he happened to be in the same classroom as me but in the first grade back then when I was in the second. We had joined classes for that one day and I ran out of the classroom to throw up when I saw that cow heart and then I just started crying at the loss of that life. I remembered going home to my dad to tell him that I was no longer going to eat meat and he indulged me for a time before he asked me if I was serious. Jeremy just tapped the other side of the menu and I started to smile at the fact that there was a full vegetarian section. I picked out the pasta that was there with vegetables.    


“Okay solved that problem, sorry about that. I hate it when restaurants won’t cater to the veggie lovers out there. I mean would it kill some people to not eat meat.” I heard a resounding yes from everyone else at the table that caused me to roll my eyes but laugh at them.    


“If Greg were here he’d be on my side of the argument even if it would be two against five.” I reminded them and took a sip from my water as the waiter came back for drink orders and I asked for my typical shirley temple when I was at a place like this.    


“It makes me wonder what actually happened that was so awful that it turned you vegetarian. Even I don’t know and I’ve been good friends with you since you were thirteen.” I didn’t like talking about it very much but Jeremy thankfully told the story so I wouldn’t have to.    


“So she was in the second grade and I think the girl’s family were farmers and they came to the school to give a demonstration about their jobs. At first everything was all fine and good until they open this bag and it had a cow’s heart and intestines in it. Abby goes running out of the classroom and I had to chase after her until she wound up in the girls bathroom and when she comes out there’s vomit on her shirt and she just went home. I go to her mansion after school and she’s watching Teen Titans and eating carrot sticks. She tells me that she’s going to go full vegetarian like Beast Boy, I don’t think she thought about bread or cheese.” Everyone at the table suddenly went into deadly silence.    


“I suddenly want to change my mind and go for something on the other side of the menu.” Elliot wise cracked and I found myself giggling at him and shaking my head.    


“It’s all good, just not my favorite moment in my life right there. I’m happy that I’m veggie but you don’t have to be in order to date me, look at Jeremy.” I teased and he only stuck his tongue out at me.    


“I’m surprised that you can even look at meat after that endeavor Jeremy.” Maurice said with a small smirk on his face and I only smiled shyly.    


“Well I do sports so I knew I would need protein in order to do that. Maybe in a few years after I graduate college than I’ll go vegetarian too but right now I think I love burgers too much to that to myself.” I only rolled my eyes at him as my drink came and I took the cherry out of it to pop it into my mouth.    


“So you mentioned about your friendship with Stephen Hillenburg earlier, is he just as nice in real life?” Jess asked me getting his own soda and I smiled happily at him but there was also this sadness there that I knew would never truly go away.    


“Oh he’s amazing!! I really love him, he’s kind of like a second uncle to me. Everyone on the Spongebob team is fantastic but him, Tom and Doug are more like family to me than anything else. They’ve not missed a birthday or a show that I was in since I met them. It’s what’s kind of killing me now that I know pretty soon he’ll be gone and I can’t do anything to stop it or slow it down. The show means so much more to me than just a goofy show about a Sponge who can talk and lives in a pineapple under the sea. It’s about friendship, the love that you can have for those around you and how sometimes a villain doesn’t have to always be evil but you can show the good sides of him as well. The closest thing that I’ve ever had to doing anything religious and this was how I realized what garbage it is, I used to pray he would get better. Obviously, it’s ALS and you can’t stop that no matter how strong you believe a person to be.” I dried the tears that were lingering in my eyes as Jeremy only looked at me with a sad smile.    


“He’s one of the nicest and most down to earth people that we’ve ever met. He created Spongebob not to make children laugh, well I’m sure that was one of his ideas, but he really was a marine biologist at heart and wanted kids to understand our resources. I did an interview with him a few years ago for a school project, we had to interview someone we idolized, she did Rob and I went with Stephen because I had spent the entire time he was at the hotel asking him questions and talking to him when he wasn’t with Abby.” He changed both of our lives forever through his creativity and heart that he put into his show.    


“I’ve heard stories that he’s a nice and wonderful man. It’s awful what’s happening to him. Do you know how much longer he has?” Maurice asked me and I nodded my head taking a sip from my drink.    


“I’ve heard from Tom that at the most he believes he only has two months left and one of those will probably be spent at the hospital trying to get him better. He wants me to perform the first song he ever taught me on the guitar that he gave me that I showed you earlier Ocean Man. It was the ending theme to the first movie one of the last things he truly made and put his heart into for the show. It has gone a little bit downhill but I’ll always hold it on the highest pedestal possible up there with Teen Titans.” Elliot only took my hand and started to draw small circles into it with his fingers.    


“ It’s awful that you’re both losing someone who so clearly means so much to you. There really are no shows nowadays that are solely focused on having an imagination that are popular aside from the yellow absorbent sponge.” Jess said remorsefully and I only nodded my head but shook myself out of my stuper.    


“But, I’m truly honored to have met him and that he’s a constant factor in my life. I don’t care if he’s leaving behind this legacy, it’s Spongebob and he knows that it’s going to carry on without him in this world. I will miss him dearly but I want to spend as much time with him as I can before I never see him again. You know something? He always wanted for me to on the show. He wanted to create an entirely new female character, a sea otter my favorite sea animal. I told him that I wouldn’t want for him to do that because it sounded like too much of a Butch Hartman move when he created that girl to share Cosmo and Wanda with Timmy. God damn do I hate that man and that cartoon.” Rob looked at me worried about me clearly but he could tell that I wanted to change the subject.    


“He is not the nicest person in the world and you are clearly accurate as to why you hate him so much. She used to be obsessed with Danny Phantom when that was still a thing and she made this amazing fanart for him at a con that she accompanied me on. He totally just wrote her off as just a little girl, I almost wanted to bring that up on Talkin’ Toons but I didn’t want to stoop to his level. Do you think that Stephen would want to do the podcast?” I shrugged my shoulders knowing that I could easily text him about it and offer it as an option.    


“I can ask him, he’ll be with us next week since they’re having a Spongebob meeting to discuss what’s going to happen when he passes away.” I got out my phone sending a text to my favorite cartoon creator other than Ciro Neili. 

_ Me: Can I ask you for a tiny favor? It’s for Rob technically. He has this podcast called Talkin’ Toons that he does every Saturday and wanted for me to ask you if you wanted to be a guest. You don’t have to answer right now obviously because he’ll be with us on the tour of Nickelodeon next week but I just wanted to tell you about it in case you were interested. I’ll be there as well, I’m usually his special assistant.  _ I sent off the text and smiled to myself at the fact that I knew he was going to say yes. 

“He’ll say yes, I already know it because that’s just the kind of person that he is. I love him so much he’s the most down to earth and genuine person in our community. As much as I idolize Ciro Neili and his creative genius and getting to meet him at the breakfast was a bunch of fun to talk about Teen Titans with him he’s not what Steve is to me. Steve helped me find myself and grow to be comfortable with who I am. The skateboarding, surfer, intelligent, karate loving, quirky and odd person that I became he helped me both inadvertently and advertently through advice.” I was always close with Steve because he helped me find who I was going to be and that my destiny doesn’t stop me from becoming the girl that I wanted to be as a thirteen year old. The waiters took our orders and I smiled shyly at everyone interacting.    


“Ciro did really like you, he often asks me how you’re doing and if you’re still interested in animation. I feel like he was the one that you were most starstruck by and that’s why you weren’t able to interact with him nearly as much as us lowly voice actors.” I laughed at Rob rolling my eyes because in my eyes he was anything but lowly.    


“Wait, you got to meet Ciro Nieli too?! Why is this the first time hearing about it?” Elliot asked me arms flailing around and I laughed at him moving my drink out of the way of his wrath.    


“Well like he said I wasn’t that comfortable around him since I was face to face with the creative genius who directed my favorite cartoon. With Steve I was able to talk to him about not just cartoons but the ocean as well since I had an obsession with marine life at the time. He was just easy to talk to since he was so humble and down to earth. Not that Ciro was mean, he totally wasn’t but I think Jeremy really bonded with him during those two days right Jer?” I asked my boyfriend who looked up from his phone for just a moment nodding.    


“Yeah, he’s really awesome actually!! You would have loved him Elliot, we just talked about cartoons and skateboarding at the time. I tried to get her to engage with him but she was sitting closer to Rob and they were just constantly talking about anything and everything. He could see how passionate you were about cartoons though and thought it was adorable how you could talk to the other voice actors so easily.” Jeremy remembered all the interactions that he had with Ciro and last time I checked they still kept in touch much like me, Doug, Rob and Tom did.    


“I think that’s awesome, it sounds like it was a killer birthday party. Did all of you guys ever all just sit down together for a meal? That must have been crazy hectic.” I laughed at Maurice nodding my head because we did have dinner all of us except for one who had to go home. 

“Well Ciro’s visit was cut short because he had to go back to Ninja Turtles, not before giving Jeremy his phone number. Other than that yeah, all of us including my dad and Pepper all sat down. Which was insane and loud but I loved it at the same time because I could listen to all these conversations that were going on. Like Tom and Doug would do things in their character voices that always cause me to giggle in real life because it’s something that you would totally never expect to see. I can now impersonate Plankton because of that dinner. It’s nowhere near as good as the real thing but I can do it.” Rob and Jeremy both laughed at the memory of that dinner since it had been so hectic but at the same time I learned so much about animation and voicing as a whole.    


“See what Doug has to do is squeeze his larax a certain way and make this air pocket over here and that’s Plankton.” Jeremy demonstrated because it was much easier for him to do than it was for me. I started to laugh at just how similar both he and Doug were without even knowing it themselves.    


“ That’s actually really fascinating, I’ve never heard of him so this is news to me. Obviously I’ve heard of Plankton but never really saw any visuals of the guy to put that with the words.” Jess told us and I nodded my head because that made sense to me since he wasn’t the most public of people. He preferred to work on the show and make kids laugh than have everybody know his name like Tom.    


“There’s a reason for this, he never wanted to be famous. He just wanted to make kids smile and laugh at Plankton’s evil plans. Doug is a naturally down to earth person and he loves his fans don’t get me wrong, he’ll do the voice for kids on the street who recognize him but he’s never been the type to go to cons. He does go to them but it’s a really rare occurrence and he only does it for the best of causes. He’s mainly a writer, that’s what he truly loves doing but he got roped into playing Plankton because he was Fillmore on Rocko’s Modern Life and Steve was one of the main directors there with that show.” Elliot explained and I looked at him in surprise because he really knew his stuff. 

“I’m shocked that you knew that El, not a lot of people do. He’s a really private person but you must be a really big fan of his to know that. He’ll be happy to know that Abby has found another one for him to meet.” Rob mentioned and I grinned at my boyfriend for his knowhow of one of my oldest animated friends. 

“Well I mean as a little girl he made me laugh harder than anything with that ridiculous voice and dialogue along with it. He was like the original Dr. Drakken another one of my favorite pathetic villains as a kid.” I smiled because John Dimaggio was a literal master of his craft and one of my favorite episodes of Talkin’ Toons was the one he was on. 

“I freaking love DiMaggio, I got to meet him during an episode of Talkin’ Toons he’s really awesome. I got to ask him to do his Dr. Drakken voice when he was on the podcast it’s one of my favorite things in the entire world. I grew up on Kim Possible pretty much and it was one of the few times that I actually looked up to a female character instead of a male one.” The food came in right at the moment that I was gushing about my favorite villain pretty much of all time mostly for his humor factor.    


“No way?! You’ve met all my idols growing up!! I loved John on Futurama that’s my favorite adult cartoon and Bender is my favorite character.” I saw Jeremy’s eyes light up at the mention of one of his favorite cartoons.    


“Yeah, I nearly killed her for meeting him without me, she said that he was really nice though. And Rob promised that the next time he has someone that we all grew up with on that we’re all invited not just his favorite right?” Jeremy batted his eyelashes jokingly at the man who acted more like a second father to me.    


“I don’t remember this conversation, maybe I’m just getting old but I don’t think we ever discussed this.” Rob teased and I only laughed at him as my pasta was sat in front of me. I took one of the carrots that was in it and nodded this was decent. I could probably make a better myself at home but I could deal with this.    


“ You and I both know that you did in fact promise this. If and when you meet with DiMaggio again you’re inviting them to come with. I didn’t even know that you knew who he was in my defense Jer.” I reminded him and he rubbed his chin trying to remember it until it eventually sank in. Jeremy gave me the silent treatment for weeks after I got to meet John DiMaggio something I couldn’t even control. We just enjoyed our lunch surrounded by laughter and went to tour the rest of the costume department. It was actually really amazing getting to see all the items from different movies and shows that they had in there worn by the actual actors. We got to walk through the small section dedicated to animation and got our photos and videos taken on broomsticks until it was time for the gift shop.

“You all may take at the most two things and it’s all on me since you got the tickets Abby.” I nodded my head at Rob giving him a hug as I went over to the Looney Toons section to pick up the Bugs Bunny that I wanted really badly to add to my collection. I followed my boyfriends to the Harry Potter pajamas and picked up this pair of Ravenclaw ones.    


“You want those? I want a pair of them too, we can match if that’s cool with you.” My boyfriend offered and I kissed him gently feeling his intake of breath not expecting me to do that. He kissed me back just as gently as I was him and cradled my face in his hands. 

“Of course that’s fine, did you want a pair too Jer?” I asked my boyfriend and he nodded reaching to the top to get his and we all met back at the front.    


“It was truly an honor meeting the both of you, thank you so much for coming all this way to spend the day with me and my boyfriends.” I thanked both Jess and Maurice getting a hug from each of them.    


“It’s no trouble, you know you’re actually really incredible. I finally understand why Rob has praised you all these years.” Maurice told me and I could see by the soft smile that he actually meant it.    


“I loved meeting you too Abby Cadabby you’re a massive sweetheart. Would you actually mind doing me a solid? I want for you to do the argument between Dot, Wakko and Yakko out front for funsies.” I nodded my head at the excited idea following the three of them outside to do the scene that I knew by heart. It was my favorite thing that had ever been done in Animaniacs and I was about dying when Jess yelled over me ‘I’m allergic to water!!’ 

“Thank you for doing that for me, I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time!! I really appreciate you coming out here Abby. I hope that I get to see you traveling around with Rob this summer.” I nodded my head and hugged Rob one last time before getting in my car. I drove my two boyfriends back home and they were cuddling in the back seat causing me to smile. Jeremy followed his new boyfriend to the front door giving him a kiss before getting in my passenger side door. I think I was just so dead tired that Jere knew I wasn’t in the mood to talk. I drove up to his house and he kissed my cheek before kissing me gently he went back up to his house and I drove home in the silence just enjoying the wind that was coming through my car windows. I drove through the garage and parked my baby in her spot next to my dad’s Audi with a sad smile on my face. I missed him so much and I wanted so badly if my boyfriends maybe had better home lives to invite them to stay here so at least I could sleep tonight but I knew that would have been selfish. When I got up to my room and I looked around at all my posters that actors had signed over the years my first one that my eyes landed on was my poster of Dr. Drakken that I created causing me to smile when I saw what John had written to me. I got into bed that night thinking about how much better and more fun tomorrow would be. I was fully peopled out after today with Jess and Maurice meeting them and all the emotional talks that we all had. I hugged my Donatello tightly and kissed the top of my plushie’s head. I tossed and turned throughout most of the night and woke up with my hair a mess and I only had about half an hour before Rob got here with his car. I sighed deeply not wanting to go out today but knowing that if I didn’t I would be letting down not only one of the few people that had always been there when I needed him but meeting the man who had made my lonely childhood mostly bearable with his horrible jokes and quirky personality. I couldn’t be selfish and had to be strong enough to get through the day. Who know maybe I would be surprised by what would happen? I sat up brushing my hair having not enough time to shower and since it was the beach that was fine because I would probably get sand and go in the water. I grabbed my Donatello swimsuit and threw that on underneath the only piece of Teen Titans merchandise that I actually had. It had Raven’s main quote ‘Azarath Metrion Zinthos’ and my pair of black shorts running out of my room. I grabbed my glasses on the way out making my smoothie considering how I was alone. I grabbed all the frozen fruit that I had wanted avoiding my dad’s meat like the black plague even though I had tried to get him to stop asking Pepper to buy it. I went back to my room with my smoothie cup in hand, same water bottle in hand and went to go and grab my backpack and my beach towel taking my sketch that I made for Greg the night before with Beast Boy in the center and all his forms that he can turn into all around him. At that moment I heard JARVIS coming over the intercom and rushed to get my shoes on. 

_ “Miss Stark, you know you could set me as an alarm, it won’t bother me in the slightest. I’m an inanimate object ma’am, I’ll let Mr. Paulsen up the driveway.”  _ I smiled to myself lacing up the bottoms of my shoes with a small sigh. I was feeling like trash left on the side of the road but when the doors opened and I saw that kind hearted smile giving me a tight hug as if he already knew how I was feeling. I didn’t even notice that I was starting to cry until Rob was rubbing small circles down my back.    


“Shhh, you’re okay, everything is going to be okay. I’m not going anywhere. Neither is Elliot or Jeremy. You’re not alone no matter what you will always have people around you to support you fully.” My uncle mentor only hugged me closer and I didn’t even realize that I was getting his shirt wet.    


“S-Sorry about that. I didn’t mean to get your shirt wet there Rob, I’m fine honestly.” I dried my eyes cleaning off the lense of my glasses and Rob only looked at me with a raised eyebrow like he didn’t believe a thing that I was saying. 

“Yeah right, I’ll believe that you’re fine when you can look me in the eye and tell me that you are. It’s okay that you’re not fine, nobody would be in your circumstances. The strongest people can look back at their lives and move forward from their times of sadness. Sunshine, it might seem like you won’t make it through this rough patch and believe me when I say that there will be moments when you feel like you want to give up and just quit right there but you can’t. If I had my say in things you wouldn’t even be in this situation in the first place. Your dad would still be in the garage and you wouldn’t even need to be working your ass off to keep those around you happy. It’s why I’m doing this for you. I feel like if you meet Greg he will teach you a lot about your center and how to calm those demons in there.” Rob always knew exactly how to deal with my inner turmoils whether it was before I met him or when I started to look up to him as not really an idol anymore but more like my uncle. He hugged my again knowing that was exactly what I needed at that moment in time.    


“Thank you Rob, I can’t say that this is the last time you’ll need to do this for me in the coming months. I just can’t stand it here. It’s too quiet and I keep expecting him to walk through the door muttering apologies and asking me where his hugs are. He always bragged about giving the best hugs even though now that I’m older it’s kind of been replaced by Jeremy and Elliot.” Rob just dried the tears that were lingering in my eyes with that same kind hearted smile that I grew up seeing.    


“If you do need to lean on others guess what Abby, that’s okay. The world is harsh and while it should be more lenient on the people that have already suffered enough that’s almost never the case. Look at Dimaggio, he practically had to go through hell to get to become the legendary voice actor that he became. He had to lean on others to get to where he is otherwise he would have high tailed and ran back home. My point is that you have others here who love and care about you, some you haven’t even met yet but they will. It’s not weakness to allow for emotional support from others. What’s it that you have quoted all the time from Spongebob?” My favorite song from the cartoon ever was when Tom got to sing Best Day Ever and I knew so many other fans adored that same song. 

“Sometimes the little things start closing in on me. When I’m feeling down I wanna lose that frown I stick my head out the window and I look around.” I had memorized that quote and it was immortalized on my guitar from where Tom had signed it. He wanted something to do with Stephen’s gift and he ended up just writing on it with a sharpie marker.    


“Those are words to live by right there, you have to be strong and hope that one day he’ll come back. You know he loves you so that’s a no brainer. I’ll bet you right now he’s working on an escape plan that only a crazy bastard like him could come up with.” I laughed at Rob as he took my backpack and my smoothie. I checked over my bag one more time realizing that I wanted to bring my skateboard and my guitar with me as well. I met Rob out by the front of his car and put the items in the back of it. 

“So I’m just giving you the warning right now, Venice is mostly a place for homeless people. It’s not a bad thing just figured that I would let you know before you’re shocked about it. Greg does what he can to keep them safe and happy but there’s some things that you just can’t control.” Rob warned me as I buckled my seatbelt in the passenger side. 

“I already knew that, it hurts because they’ll already have opinions of me because everyone thinks that I have everything. I don’t have what I truly want. I want the freedom to make my own choices and speaking of which…” I trailed off as I saw Obidah going up to the front of the mansion and Rob only glared at him.    


“We could just drive away and pretend that we don’t even see him? Make this day a good one actually?” Rob offered but I just shook my head because there was some things that I needed to say to him.    


“He’s not going to listen to you Abby, come on let’s just go. You can talk to him later after we do what we set out to do this morning. It’ll be good I promise, hey look over there, I think a rabbit is eating your strawberries.” I planted strawberries last summer when I got better from my illness and I excitedly looked over at my strawberry plant seeing nothing but when I looked at Obidah by the front door arguing with Jarv and having this look of utter indignation at my old friend who was driving me I knew what he did.    


“You are so awful, he already hates me Rob you’re only making it worse.” I said to him even though the part of me that wanted to laugh at the situation was winning out.    


“I have no idea what you’re talking about, I just did something I’ve been wanting to do for literally years.” I laughed at my friend fully at the thought that he just pulled a Christmas Vacation on me knowing that was my favorite movie to watch during the holidays. 

“I honestly can’t believe you sometimes but I love you all the same. Thank you for doing this for me again. It means the world to me.” Rob only grinned happily back at me and I reached into my pocket taking out my phone and checking to see if Stephen ever got back to me. It turned out that he did and it caused me to smile when I read it back. 

_ Ocean Man: I know Rob, of course I do you’d have to be living under a rock to not know of him. I would actually love to be on the podcast with him, I heard from Butch that it was a lot of fun. You weren’t at that one though were you?  _ I sighed knowing that he would have brought up how much I hated one of his oldest friends. 

“Steve has agreed to do your show by the way, I’ll let you two work out the details. Hang on I actually have a genius idea!!” I opened my notes on my phone humming the opening theme to the classic cartoon.    


“That’s great!! I’m really glad that he did, haven’t seen him in a few years even though I never got the chance to work with him. What’s your idea?” He asked me pulling out of the mansion as I texted back my one true iconic creator.    


_ Me: Nope, I skipped that one. You know how I feel about him and that he’s not my favorite person in the entire world. I’m just praying that he’s not going to be at the studios the day that I’m there with Jeremy and Elliot considering they are my boyfriends and that would probably get ugly. It’s great that you’re interested in coming out though!! It’ll be a lot of fun to get to see you again.  _ I dried the tears that were in my eyes as I told my idea that I had just gotten. 

“We rewrite the opening theme to introduce him, like this who created a pineapple under the sea Stephen Hillenburg.” I demonstrated and Rob just laughed at me nodding his head.    


“I have taught you well sunshine, definitely going to work with that. You didn’t have to bring your skateboard by the way, I think he had a new one in the gift basket.” I looked down at the skateboard that I had painted myself with a sad smile on my face.    


“I figured as much but this old one has a lot of good memories to go along with it. I learned how to skateboard with it even though it’s old and has definitely seen it’s better days. I’ll still always keep it though, it means too much for me to just throw it away.” I had great memories with my board, it helped get me to my college classes with time to spare and it helped me learn how to keep my balance.    


“I know it means a lot to you, plus you had Ciro sign it didn’t you?” I looked down at my board seeing the directors signature on the bottom of my board. 

“Yeah he did, he was incredible I think I was just a little bit too starstruck by him at the time.” I took my smoothie from his cup holder and took a sip with a happy hum on my lips. 

“Did you bring Bugs with you? It looks like you could use him.” I took the bunny out of my backpack where I had put him last night. I snuggled him into my lap and smiled to myself at finally having the mischievous rabbit causing trouble and wrecking havoc upon his fellow characters.    


“That’s better, now there’s the happy smiling girl I grew up with. You’re going to have a great day and we’re going to get you a friend who will hopefully help you through this patch. Animals are great if them and their masters are completely simpatico if you look at Greg and Wingman that’s my perfect example.” I smiled at my old friend nodding my head and heard the sounds of The Beatles as no surprise to me. I heard my phone buzz and went down to check it seeing a text from Elliot.    


_ Elliot <3: Since you’ve been a special guest on Talkin’ Toons and gotten to ask various Va’s questions was there any one moment that just had you dying laughing?  _ I snickered at the sheer memory of this moment in time and I knew that my boyfriend was going to kill me since he grew up on this show too.    


“What’s up? Texting Elliot? What did he ask? I really liked that boy, he’s a great kid and a real sweetheart.” I smiled softly wishing that he could have come with me but this was in the group chat with me and Jeremy. 

“Yeah I just got a text from him asking my favorite moment so far on Talkin’ Toons. Which was as we both know is asking John Dimaggio to sing Lather, Rinse and Obey as Dr. Drakken. I swear I was trying to hold in my tears of laughter throughout that entire sequence. Just seeing him do that voice in person was so disconcerting alone but it amazed me that someone can be so talented yet has gone through hell to find his voice acting career.” I texted back Elliot as Rob just laughed remembering that moment perfectly as I searched for it through the YouTube channel since that was the segment that got posted there. I sent it to my boyfriend and started to laugh as I pressed the play button.    


_ Me: This is my favorite moment in Talkin’ Toons history, you can see my shoulders shaking with repressed laughter. Just seeing this big guy singing a rap song that I grew up with and learned all the lyrics and hearing it in real life was one of those moments where I thought to myself I’m glad that I was raised during this time period.  _

“He did really love you too, he always asks when he can talk to you again since he didn’t really get to talk with you during the podcast. I might invite him to a small birthday party for you where all of us voice actors can get together. Doug, Tom, Greg, myself and John.” I smiled at just how caring he could be towards me as I thought in the back of my mind that would be an amazing but small party. Perfect for me. 

“I would love that, that’s the perfect idea. I’ll have to hack my dad’s email and reply to Misha, Jensen and Jared apologizing to them. I’m not in the mood for a huge party anymore, I just want my favorite people around me when I turn eighteen. I have to tell Mimi and Vikki of the change of plans as well and re invite them to this one. They are both of course huge fans of Futurama as pretty much all animation nerds are including myself.” I got the text back from Elliot and I could almost hear his laughter.    


_ Elliot <3: Holy fucking shit!! That’s so hilariously awesome and I’m so jealous of you getting to meet him even if I didn’t even know you back then. You could just see the joy on his face that he was making you laugh. He will always be my favorite bumbling villain who did pretty much everything wrong, even though we had Dr. Doofenshmirtz in Phineas and Ferb he always felt like a copy. A really funny and comedic copy but a copy nonetheless.  _ I smiled at Elliot as we got on the freeway seeing Jeremy actually waking up. 

_ Jeremy <3: Okay, this was actually probably the best way to wake me up ever. If I ever meet him in person I’m asking him to do Bender hands down. He’s my favorite character in Futurama and one of my favorites in general.  _

_ Me: Seriously, I spent my entire childhood loving Dr. Drakken so when Rob told me that he wanted for me to meet John. Let me tell you from experience he is pretty much Bender in real life, extremely foulmouthed. Completely lovable and I adore his work on American Dragon and Futurama but I was caught off guard by the amount of foul language.  _ I thought about telling them about my idea for my small “family” centered birthday party and decided that I would explain it to them the next time I saw them in person. 

“I take it that you’re excited but nervous considering you haven’t said that much.” Rob mentioned with a small smile and I nodded my head shyly pushing a lock of hair behind my ear that had fallen out of my braid.    


“I’m really nervous but excited at the same time. I haven’t been this nervous to meet a voice actor since forever ago it feels like. It just proves what he means to me and how much he changed my life.” Rob just squeezed my hand trying to comfort me and calm me down as my leg bounced up and down. 

“Don’t be nervous about meeting him, he’s the most genuine person you could probably ever meet. You weren’t nervous about meeting Swampy were you? That was a great day wasn’t it? You really loved the Disney studios and getting to see them animate.” Doug had been old friends with the original creator for one of my favorite modern cartoons Jeff “Swampy” Marsh and of course Dan Pavimor the original creator of Phineas and Ferb. I even got to see them do their character voices for Major Monogram and Dr. Doofenshmirtz    


“No I really wasn’t, he was really chill with me and asked me questions about me out of curiosity.” I was obsessed with cartoons that taught kids about imagination and used a lot of heart to demonstrate their point.    


“You’re going to love Greg than because he’s a lot like how he was with you. There’s no need to be nervous about what he’ll think about you. Just be yourself that all the voice actors you meet fall in love with.” He switched the songs to my playlist that I sent him when I created the best openings for animated cartoons hearing the one for Phineas and Ferb come on first.    


“I’ll never forget when you told me about this new cartoon and sitting down and watching it with you. Watching your eyes light when you showed me the first few episodes when I told you I hadn’t even heard of it the first time we met.” I laughed at the memory when he asked me what my favorite modern cartoon was at thirteen and I excitedly told him about the story of two brothers who spent their summer creating different technology and annoying their sister who could never catch them in the act. When Doug told me that he knew the creator I had begged him to see if he could get me to meet him and three years ago on the final date that the last episode aired he got me in to meet Swampy and everybody.    


“ It’s a good show and I loved it’s characters, especially Phineas I feel like he was me at that age. I was a “genius” but I was also kind, loved singing and dancing, helpful towards my friends, was oblivious as hell towards the feelings that Jeremy had for me now looking back on it those were staring me in the face they were so obvious. I was rational and calm and almost never got angry with anybody but was prone to rare moments of irritation when I would just lose my cool and scream at somebody to do what they were told and what I believed was best for them.” I would spend hours watching the cartoon and comparing myself to the main character. To the point where at my age I still considered him to be the one animated character that I looked at and could say without conviction that was me.    


“I admired that about you, how calm you could be but at the same time you would get so passionate about things that you believed weren’t right. For somebody who was only thirteen at the time you had this moral code that knew no bounds. I remember when Katie started bullying another girl your age, I think her name was Rebecca the name escapes me and you stopped her lecturing her about how what she was doing wasn’t right. You got suspended from school for fighting because when Katie wouldn’t stop she had one of her minions scratch your skin with her nails. You didn’t even fight back, you just took it without complaining and I asked you why you didn’t because I knew you could with your experience in martial arts. I asked you when I heard from Tony that he wanted for me to talk to you about why you did it but you just told me that you couldn’t end up like her. You didn’t want to do the same thing that she was doing because you believed it to be the worst possible thing you could ever do to a person.” He pulled off the freeway at the exit for Venice beach and I saw like he warned me a lot of homeless people and that broke my heart. I just wanted to do something for all of them but not knowing what to do.    


“There’s not much you can do for them except bring them a little bit of joy sometimes. Greg does what he can to protect them but you can’t stop everything from happening. Some of them get arrested for doing nothing wrong, others have their property stolen by police.” Rob tried to explain to me and I sighed deeply knowing that deep down of course he was right as usual.    


“I know I can’t do anything about it, but it just breaks my heart. I have everything and yet I feel as though at the moment I’ve lost everything but my last name that never meant anything to me.” I looked out the window at all the people who seemed to be suffering but still smiling and talking with each other.    


“I didn’t say that there was nothing you could do, see Greg does this thing weekday nights where he gathers all the people that he can and has a potluck at his house and a bonfire. It’s a time for music mostly and it’s one of the reasons why I’m glad that you brought that guitar with you now that I’m thinking about it. Usually the kids will ask for different cartoon themes to be played. I think you’ll really love Ethan and Steven, they’re twins who are pretty much Phineas and Ferb.” I listened as Rob explained to me about the lifestyle that all these people shared and how the voice actor that I looked up to treated those around him.    


“I’m sure that I will love troubleshooting different ideas with them. There’s nothing I love more than kids with overactive imaginations probably because I still am one of them.” Rob only laughed at me continuing to drive up the strand and finding a spot near the beach where it wasn’t that crowded since it was still early. 

“Come on, he’s probably right down here.” Rob told me and I grabbed my guitar and my smoothie following him down the beach to where I saw a man laughing at his dog as he splashed through the water. He had long blonde hair and I knew instantly from pictures and interviews exactly who that was, Greg Cipes. He looked to be totally at peace and at his happiest spot with his life and I wanted to know how he did it. With all the horrible things that were probably constantly weighing him down how he could be happy and leave his problems at the door like this was amazing to me. Rob waved to him and I just watched as the man who I had admired for so long start to smile even brighter.    


“Rob!! You made it man, I was starting to get a little worried about what happened to the two of you. And you must be the young lady that I’ve been wanting to meet for so long, hi Abby.” He used his Beast Boy voice and I couldn’t help the giggles that escaped me.    


“Sorry I fell in love with Beast Boy when I was six years old. It came out when I was six and I was just starting to fall into becoming a vegetarian. He sort of helped me continue doing so even to this day when my dad questions how I’m related to him in that regard.” I pushed a stray lock of hair behind my ear and saw the dog in question coming running up the beach.    


“ Hey wingman D, there’s someone I want for you to meet. I think that’s incredible by the way, I couldn’t have gone veggie at that age. I’m guessing you had a bad experience?” I nodded my head and shuddered at the memory of that poor cow’s heart right in front of my eyes.    


“Oh yeah in a really bad way, if my boyfriend Jeremy were here he would tell the story for me since I hate talking about it. Hi wingman, I’ve heard that you weren’t a big fan of my friend CJ.” I stuck my hand out towards the dog and he sniffed before licking it and I took it as he approved of me.    


“Oh my god, he was so funny during that entire podcast. Looking back and listening to it again he spent a good portion of it growling at him in the background.” Rob joked and I stroked the dog’s belly completely understanding why he would have been weary of him.    


“It makes sense to me since I’m the same way around new people. Unless I’ve spent a good portion of my childhood listening to them. John Dimaggio, you two and Tom Kenny pretty much my childhood.” Greg hugged me tightly and I couldn’t help but hug him back.    


“You’re adorable that’s it, I’m so glad that you could come out here to talk to me. Oh, you too Rob.” He joked and I laughed at him not being able to help my laughter when Rob tried to glare menacingly at him.    


“Oh gee thanks Greg, it’s not like I didn’t drive her here or anything. I knew you would say that, sunshine here is pretty incredible.” I got my towel out from my bag that was the same Donnie one but this one had Michelangelo on the bottom of it. 

“That’s awesome, I love it. I know you’re a total Donatello girl that makes sense but I didn’t know that you loved Mikey too.” I grinned at the voice actor who had changed my life through light and humorous characters. If I hadn’t grown up around Beast Boy or his version of Michelangelo I would be a totally different person.    


“I think that she’s a mixture of both, she has the smarts of Donnie but she loves skateboarding and laughing much like Mikey. I think she’s allowed to act like both.” I realized that I left my skateboard in the back of Rob’s car and facepalmed mentally. It was alright though as Greg handed me his gift basket.    


“I made this for you back for your thirteenth birthday and never got the chance to give it to you. Sorry about that by the way, it wasn’t really the best timing.” I smiled a the voice actor who had came into my life bringing laughter and humor while keeping Beast Boy that same relatable character he always was when I was a little girl. 

“It’s not a problem really, I know that you were the one Jere was the most excited to meet aside from Ciro. You didn’t miss out on getting slimed that’s one thing for sure. I had to do it twice, once with all the voice actors and another time with my dad and Jeremy because they’re children and didn’t believe me when I said it was disgusting.” I chuckled at the memory that I had kept with me for the longest time because it was one of the few times that my dad and my boyfriend had actually gotten along.    


“ It was really gross but at the same time it was something so absolutely hysterical and mocking Doug who of course had his hair long back then as he always does. Sometimes he just makes it way too easy.” I laughed at the image that I was getting in the back of my mind pulling out my phone so I could show him the picture.    


“It’s his icon on my phone, he hates but whenever he calls me or texts me I wind up laughing. It’s just one of those memories that keeps me going sometimes.” Wingman came back over to me and rubbed his nose against my leg.    


“Look in the basket Abby, I want to see what he’s been hiding in there for the last four years. He never even told me what was in there.” I laughed and took out the first item going in blind with closed eyes and plucked it out feeling wheels oddly enough. I opened my eyes seeing that it was low and behold a brand new skateboard. This one had Michelangelo on it with his swinging nunchucks and his bright smile on his face.    


“Ohh, this is awesome!! I’m actually in dire need of a new skateboard, I’ve been using this same board since I was eight. I made it myself for the most part and painted it to look like the original Teen Titans logo.” I didn’t have my old board on me at the moment so he would just have to believe me.    


“Really? I didn’t even know you could skateboard, I was willing to teach you since that’s mostly how I get around at least here. Lucky guess I’d assume since there’s another skateboard in there. I didn’t know which one you would prefer.” I looked in the bag seeing another skateboard this one had Beast Boy on it and I instantly fell in love with it.    


“I love this one, so much then again I’m biased and Rob will tell you that BB is one of my favorite characters in cartoon history. He’s up there with Spongebob, Donatello in Rise Of TMNT since I sort of find myself relating to the more sarcastic side of his personality, Phineas and that’s really about all the characters that I looked at and went I kind of act like them.” I took out the next item that seemed to be calling out to me, it was oddly enough a pair of sneakers. Then again it was a pair of shoes that were so iconic in my brain that I knew instantly who they belonged to and even checked the bottom to see if they had the pawprints down there. 

“No way?! I love these!!” I unlaced the ones that I was currently wearing to try on my new shoes and felt remarkably better.    


“Where did you find these Greg? They look like they were handmade for her. I’ve never seen them make shoes themed to Beast Boy.” Rob asked his old friend who smiled happily and totally at one with himself as I rubbed Wingman’s belly.    


“They actually are handmade, I have a friend in town who makes shoes sometimes for the homeless people and she offered to make the shoes themed to Beast Boy. I’m so glad that you love them so much, those were probably my favorite thing from the bag even though there’s a bunch of other things in there too.” I reached and ended up pulling out a sweatshirt themed to Michelangelo next.    


“Oh this is cute!! I have a Donatello one already that’s one of my favorites. I love wearing it when it’s cold here and pretty much wore it everyday that I was at MIT since it reminded me of home and that I had people here that cared about me.” Rob put an arm around my shoulders comfortingly as I pulled out another item a shirt that had both Michelangelo and Beast Boy on it. Above them it said ‘You’ll know just where to find them when it’s party time.’ 

“Aww that’s adorable, I love that so much. I have a lot of animated shirts that I’ve been given from a lot of my icons of animation. I got this one of Isabella from Phineas and Ferb that Swampy, the original creator gave to me a few years ago that I still adore to this day.” I took out the final thing from the bag that brought a tear to my eyes.    


“What is it?” Rob looked at the framed certificate that was in my hands and I dried the tears in my eyes.    


“It’s a certification signed by all of us from Teen Titans to make you an honorary Titan. It was actually Ciro’s idea but he wanted me as your favorite member of the team to give it to you. All of them signed it though, you can see Terra’s up there alongside everyone else’s.” I looked up to where he was pointing and couldn’t help the tears to slowly fall down my face.    


“This means so much to me, more than you know. As a kid I wanted to be a part of the team so badly but I knew it wasn’t possible. I had my imagination but that only got me part of the way. I was alone a lot and having to always please the people around me since my last name has this huge reputation.” He only smiled at me though I could tell this one was a bit more cautious.    


“I’m so sorry about what happened to your dad if it means anything. He’s an incredible human being and one of the best father figures that I’ve ever seen. He gets a bad reputation but a lot of the time, people try to do the right things and they end up going about it in the wrong way I’ve found out. He’ll find his way back to you and I know that it’s awful right now but someday it will get better.” Greg took my sorrow with stride and a bright smile as the sun came up directly onto the beach.    


“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell her, somethings are harder for her to understand since she’s different and she’s emotionally different from everyone. I was worried when I first heard what happened to Tony because she’s never been good at handling stressful situations before. When I had throat cancer for months I didn’t want to tell her even though she was one of the first to know about it. I had to approach it better than I did with most everybody else simply because I was closer to her as well. Abby was always the one that I did the work for after I met her mostly because I couldn't wait to share it with her.” Rob gave a bit more of the backstory as I took the last thing that was at the very bottom with made me smile. It was a Beast Boy plush from back when they probably made these at Build A Bear Workshop. 

“I am different, I’ve always prided myself on the fact that I’m me. I guess you could say Beast Boy taught me that, you don’t need to change yourself to fit what other people want for you to be. He never changed and was always the same bumbling, sometimes clueless but at the same time lovable goofball that I grew up with. Looking back at the original cartoon, it’s so much deeper now than I remember it ever being. Like, Beast Boy’s inner turmoil and self loathing because he is so different to the point where he was the oddest one on the whole team and the only one to lose control completely of his powers for an entire episode.” Rob just put an arm around my shoulders as I changed my shoes and put my old ones into the gift bag.    


“I love doing Beast Boy because he means so much to me and to everybody who watched the show. Everyone loved his comedic timing and I feel so honored and blessed that they chose me to play him. It’s why I continue to do it even though I’ll admit that Go isn’t exactly the original show. I would rather do the original but I know all of us would. You mentioned that you got meet the creator of Phineas and Ferb though? I know of the two boys who are homeless and orphans in our neighborhood Ethan and Steven, they’re going to love you. They grew up on that show when they still had parents so it means a lot to them.” My heart broke at the thought of not only two homeless boys but orphans too but knew that I had to remain strong for them.    


“That show meant the absolute planet to me when I was growing up because it showed me that I was totally normal having all these crazy ideas and having the capabilities to make them actually happen. It was full of imagination, quick writing, amazing characters that I’ll never forget and just an all around brilliant cartoon that kids and adults could both sit down and enjoy. Full disclosure that was the theme to my seventh birthday family party right there. That was when I built my indoor skating park since that year I had learned to board. It was me, Jeremy and Katie even though she mostly just sat there and bitched the entire time as I skated down the ramps that I built. I had dressed up as Isabella with these leggings under her dress and the same bow in my hair. I got a ton of Phineas and Ferb merchandise that I still keep that day as well including my favorite sheets that have Perry pretty much all over them. That cartoon taught me that anything was possible and those possibilities are truly endless. Getting to meet Swampy was a life changing moment that’s for sure, he was really nice to me too. I find that the voice acting and just the animation crew to be the hardest workers and they put the most heart into their product. I spent that entire afternoon trying to keep my geeking out to a minimum but at the end of the day when I got read for one small bit part I couldn’t help the tears. I only had one line but it was something that I carried with me for the rest of my life, my character said ‘today was a great day Phineas’ and it just felt like my entire cummiliation of loving the show and the industry came together. I’m talking way too much, sorry I’m really passionate about Phineas and Ferb.” I gushed about getting to talk about my favorite modern cartoon that I used to wait for every Saturday when they marathoned a couple of reruns as well as new episodes.    


“I think it’s adorable that you can talk so much about one particular subject. You shouldn’t apologize for speaking your mind, it’s interesting to learn about all the information you carry in that big brain of yours. What do you want to do with it?” Wingman moved from between my legs back to the water again and I smiled to myself.    


“To be honest, I’m more interested in charity work than actually working in technology. I want to help people that are less fortunate, if I had a different family I probably would have became a social worker or something. As much as I love creating things like the StarkPhone that was me by the way I just let my dad take credit for it or fixing up my car which I spent most of my summer doing in the garage at the mansion I would still prefer to help kids find better homes and better lives.” I crossed my legs across my beach towel and smiled at the fact that I felt so much better just being here and hearing the waves crash against the sand.    


“You know that’s actually really humble of you to want to do something like that. I don’t have the money to do things like that but you do. You could actually make things with that big brain of yours that could benefit those less fortunate.” I knew that Greg was right and Rob only looked at him like he was thinking about something.    


“Hey Greg, what happened with that old clothing store where the homeless people used to get their clothes?” The man in question just sighed deeply and for the first time since I got here I saw him frowning. 

“The police shut the place down, it’s awful. A lot of people relied on that place to get clean clothes and new ones for a really cheap price even free most of the products there. They’re going to tear the place down and get rid of it for a new mall. I don’t even get why the people here need it, it’s just so pointless.” I had an idea but I needed a piece of paper that was in my bag with my sketchbook so that his poster wouldn’t get wrinkled. I took a pencil from my Phineas and Ferb pencil pouch as childish as it was I’ve had it since the show first came out and merchandise was everywhere. I flipped to a clean page and started to draw a building design with a ton of rooms.    


“What are you doing there Abby?” Greg asked me as he leaned over to see my rough sketched design.    


“I’m wondering if I could out-buy the property to the new “mall” and put something that will be actually useful for the homeless around here. It could be like a school, babysitting, just a safe haven for the children here and even some of the adults so they can get either GED’s or high school diplomas. I want to make something and give it back to the people if I can’t stay at the mansion which I don’t want to at the moment. The only problem is, if I’m going to do this, I need to get Obadiah's permission so that I can get the Stark brand name on it if I want to.” I drew a music room for those who wanted to get degrees in music or just wanted to learn how to play an instrument.    


“Abby, this is a genius idea!! You really a Stark through and through, I’m so proud of you.” Rob complimented as I took another sip from my smoothie as I sketched the animation section where I could have famous creators or voice actors give presentations maybe since I knew a lot of them and some of them I could meet.    


“You don’t need to do this Abby, we handle ourselves fine but if you really want to then I’m sure everyone around the area would love it too. I’m sure that it would be a hit and a huge success for your family's business.” I sighed deeply and looked up towards the sky wishing my dad would just come back so that I could get his help on this bright idea.    


“I’m sure that if your dad could see you doing something for those who are lesser than you he would be insanely proud. I find that so many people who have money like you do try to flaunt it when they can and you might get some backlash from this if you can handle that.” I nodded my head because if my dad could do it and handle being in the spotlight than so could I.    


“I can handle myself fine and I have enough people supporting me. It’s going to be free and they’ll be tutors and different teachers for subjects to help people out. The animation section is going to my all time favorite I think since I’m going to try and get as many voice actors and creators as I can in on the project. Thankfully I already know a lot of them who would love to do it.” This was true, Tom and Doug would pretty much do anything for their fans, so would John and Rob but there were others that I would love to meet and introduce to other people.    


“Count me on it as well, even though everyone around here knows me I’ll do anything I can to help. Will it be available to everyone?” I nodded my head knowing I would need some form of public transportation for free so that homeless people could get an education Stark Busses or something. 

“Of course it will, I’ll have to create my own busses with free wifi so that people can do their homework and have insanely strong wifi in the building. I just need to find out who’s going to buy it. There’s going to a cafeteria willing to cater to everybody's needs whether they be like normal people, vegetarian like me or vegan like you.” I sketched the cafeteria that would be free towards everyone so that people around here could get hot food that's healthy and better for them if they wanted that.    


“You’re really putting a lot of thought and heart into this, you should get Eliot’s opinion on this too, maybe he could be a tutor.” Rob recommended and I blushed pulling out my phone and texting both my boyfriends about my idea. 

_ Me: Alright you two, just indulge me for a minute here. If I were to create a place where the homeless people of the Venice beach and Los Angeles area would either of you be interested in helping? Like by being tutors or Jere you could play sports with the kids. I know that once school starts you’ll both be busy but I thought that I would ask anyways.  _   


“There I asked, you have to keep in mind though that they’re both still in high school. I’m the nerd that graduated early and got an advanced ride even at college.” I would also take ideas from the people that were in the area and knew how to gather the proper information. 

“Are they your boyfriends? I think that’s awesome that you’re poly. It will probably get some unneeded media coming your way when people find out but you kinda just gotta tune those people out.” I listened to Greg hearing my phone buzz and I looked down at my Belle phone case seeing a text from Eliot. 

_ Eliot <3: I would actually love to be a tutor for you. My best subjects are obviously electronics, technology, computers but I’m also a boss at English and history. I can pretty much tutor everything but I’ll be glad to help both you and the people of this state. I knew when you got there you would want to do something for the people there since you have the biggest heart.  _ I laughed at how he worded how he was a ‘boss’ at English and history thinking that was just typical Eliot.    


_ Me: Thanks El!! That means a lot to me, it’s still in the developmental stages but I have a ton of ideas so far. I want to make a music room for people that want to learn to play instruments, I could tutor both that and the animation building. I want to have speakers like voice actors and creators for that one as well. I already know a handful of them that would definitely be interested. I’m going to ask Swampy too, he created Phineas and Ferb back in the day when we were kids and if you ask Jere he’ll tell you that is my favorite modern cartoon other than Teen Titans. I umm kinda met him too and got a private tour of the Disney animation studios when they made the final long movie episode and got to meet the voice actors and even read for one myself. He’s good friends with Doug and that’s how he got me into the studios to meet him.  _

“Alright Eliot is game for it, Jeremy is a bit of a tricker one because he does sports mostly soccer that’s his favorite. I grew up with him obviously he means the world to me since he always stuck by my side. He’ll probably at least be around for the fun of it. Especially if I got one of the actors that he hates me for meeting without him and he still hangs it over my head. One of the Talkin’ Toons episodes I got to oversee was the one with John DiMaggio since that was after I got better. I feel so bad that I missed not only yours but Phil Lammar’s as well and I was so excited about that one.” I remembered that I had his sketch in my book and flipped to the front of it showing it to him.    


“ It’s a thing that I do for the voice actors I meet, I make them these posters that I get framed and put them either in my room or in my skating room. I think that this one is my favorite for the obvious reasons.” I showed it to him and watched his face light up like it was Christmas.    


“Oh my god!! That’s amazing, I love it so much. Which form is your favorite? I my favorite is Dino form it usually was my favorite to the sounds to.” I looked at him in surprise that he actually did all the animal noises for Beast Boy.    


“No way?! You did all those sounds?! That’s so cool!! I think my favorite is either dinosaur, the lemur or the peacock that one is just funny to me. His lemur form is seriously adorable though and it always made me laugh when I was a kid.” He took my pen that I was sketching with and wrote a note at the bottom.    


“I loved the lemur as well, when I found out he did all those sounds for those animals on the podcast not even I knew that so that my genuine reaction. I think that he still is the best character from that cast aside from Raven even if we’re talking Teen Titans Go because you’re just a total powerhouse.” I nodded my head at Rob’s thoughts as I got my drawing back and I looked at what he wrote causing me to smile.    


_ Abby,  _ _   
_ _ I think that you’re an incredible person and that you’re going to do amazing things with your gift for being one of the kindest people I’ve ever met. I pray that you continue to amaze me with your kindness and that you continue to laugh.  _ _   
_ _ Your honorary favorite Titan co-member,  _

_ Greg Cipes aka Beast Boy  _

“He’s crazy fun to play and it got me my character archetype as the partier of the group who most often has ADHD and bounces off walls. I’ve been playing him for close to fifteen years and it’s insane to think about that because it feels like just yesterday I was getting the call for the first episode. We didn’t know that it would become such a hit back then or that we would even have jobs the next week. I think a lot of people just watched it because it grew on them. It was new, it was different and a lot of the time it was fresh and took risks that you couldn’t often take on television. Speaking of risk takers, you were once quite the risk taker weren’t you Mister Yakko Warner?” I laughed at Rob and he just shrugged his shoulders as Greg stood up.    


“Hey, I loved that character you leave him alone and so does somebody else here. Where are you going?” Greg started to walk back towards his house and he turned as Wingman went running to catch up with him.    


“ There was other thing that was too big to fit into the gift bag so I had to keep it in the house. I’ll only be gone for just a second.” Greg went into the house and Rob just elbowed my shoulders.    


“See? He’s just like any other person that you’ve gotten to meet. I think you needed this day more than you know. He’s taught me things about myself that I didn’t even know existed like that calmness when you need to meditate.” Rob told me and I smiled to myself giving my new Beast Boy plush a hug for good measure.    


“I know, I’m surprised at how easy it is to just talk to him and how good he is at listening and understanding me. I think I’ll come back here so I can meet with him again a lot more times now that I know exactly where I’m going. Plus if I’m going to build something here I’ll want to oversee the construction.” Rob only leaned back almost against my shoulder and smiled at me.    


“So you’re serious about wanting to do this? You’ll have to give the announcement speech publicly and it’s going to get a lot of publicity. It’ll be good publicity but all the same you’ll most likely be hounded by the press more so than normal.” He reminded me and I only nodded as Greg came back out hauling a surfboard that looked to have Beast Boy on it in swim trunks surfing and a swimsuit that was themed to the changeling. 

“It’s another thing I had made specifically for you, I knew from Jeremy that one of the trips to Hawaii you went on you learned how to surf so I thought that this would be appropriate.” I looked at the board in awe taking off my shirt and shorts putting them into my backpack.    


“It’s things like this that need to be tested for posterity. I’ll be right back.” I told them both as Rob merely laughed at me and I saw two boys using skateboards and signing to each other. It looked like one of the brother’s could be deaf and that’s why they were signing to each other. I felt instantly bad for them but also felt this pull towards them. I wanted to protect them for some reason and knew that this had to be Ethan and Steven.    


“I don’t think that’s exactly safe, maybe someone should stop them?” I asked and Greg looked towards them rolling his eyes at them.    


“How many times do I have to tell them no matter how good a person is at using a skateboard that using it backwards is something that you should never do. I’ll talk to them.” He stood up from his spot on the beach as Wingman went up to the boys barking at them as if lecturing them. 

“That’s Ethan and Steven, they’re the two brothers that I told you about earlier that I thought you would connect with. Their parents passed away in a house fire last year and they’ve been here ever since. They didn’t want to go to an orphanage after being abused and put into separate foster homes. Greg has really taken a liking to them it seems. I think he would adopt them if he could. Maybe once he gets back a certain genius wouldn’t mind doing the honors?” Rob explained the backstory of the two boys and I sighed deeply.    


“I’m sure that he would love them if he was here I would have to stop him from doing so right now. We do have the room for them when he does come back and then I’ll talk to him about it. I do know that he always wanted more than just me but wanted for me to grow up first.” I wanted to hit the water first but also wanted to wait for the two brothers to get here.    


“I think that they would love you, Steven’s been deaf since birth and it can be fixed with surgery but they never had the money even when they had a mother and father. It doesn’t stop him from being the best drummer possible though since even though he can’t exactly hear the beats he can feel them and read sheet music. You won’t be surprised when I tell you that he idolized Ferb growing up since there were few characters that could speak but often didn’t. He can talk it’s just harder for him since he can’t hear the other person’s response.” Rob told me about the other brother that I saw was slowly shrinking away from Greg as his lecture went on. I followed the sound of his voice knowing this was the time to save their asses.    


“I don’t know how many times we have to go through this you two and I love you, you know that. But, it’s not at all safe for you to be riding a skateboard backwards Ethan even if you know the area which you really don’t. You’ve only been here for a year and been boarding for about half that time maybe at the most. I know you two love to talk to each other but you need to be safe when you two don’t have helmets. If Abigail hadn’t seen the two of you, you could’ve gotten seriously hurt.” I could tell that Greg loved and cared about both of these boys like his own sons but was also irritated at the fact that they wouldn’t listen to him.    


“Okay, I think they get the picture there Greg and he’s right it’s not safe at all. Even for a someone considered an expert who’s been doing it since she was seven wouldn’t be trying that unless I had a helmet and padding. I should probably introduce myself, sorry I’m just massively screwing this up, Abigail Stark at your service.” I signed my introduction as I talked to both of them and the deaf brother only signed back to me.    


_ Very few people are actually able to communicate with me the way that I prefer. I can read lips and reply back but it’s not my favorite thing. I love Donatello, he’s my favorite turtle, we sometimes see the newer series on the television at the homeless shelter here, it’s awesome. I’m Steven and this is my brother Ethan.  _ The younger of the two twins it would seem signed to me happiness and a little bit of tears in his bright blue eyes that contrasted his dark hair.    


“You’re a Stark?! That’s freaking awesome!! I’ll bet you do a lot of technology stuff with your dad right?!” The older of the twins almost started this animated babbling waving his arms around as Steven moved away laughing at his brother. 

“It’s true I am a Stark, it’s pretty great, well not really at the moment but I do love my dad. He means a lot to me and has helped me through everything that I’ve done. I do love making tech with my dad, you know StarkPhone right? That was all my creation right there not to brag or anything but my dad thinks I’m pretty great at it.” I got on their level signing to the younger brother as I spoke to the older one.    


_ We heard about what happened, I’m really sorry that’s got to suck for you. Losing a biological parent like that if you don’t whether they’re dead or alive… _ The younger brother signed to me and I only shook my head at him.    
“That’s the thing, he’s not my biological parent. I was adopted by him when I was five years old and he wanted a daughter but also wanted to give back to the community so he decided that he would pick me. I grew up hearing the drilling coming from the garage in my mansion and that’s probably what I miss the most is hearing radio silence.” I said and signed to the younger boy and they both looked at me in shock and surprise.    


“That just sounds awful, but you look so happy. How do you do it if you don’t mind me asking Abigail?” Ethan asked me and I only shook my head at the older brother.    


“I might look happy on the outside but that’s only because I’m outside of my house. If I were at home I would probably be crying in my room right now. I surround myself with people that I admire and idolize that helps me cover up my emotions. Now, I hear that you two are fans of Phineas and Ferb?” I asked the twins and the younger started avidly signing to me.    


_ It’s my favorite cartoon other than Pokemon, that only beats it out slightly. I’m a naturally creative and inventive person and so is my brother so it was epic being able to relate to Phineas and Ferb in that way. If we had resources like you do there’s no telling what we would create. You sort of remind me of Isabella, that same happy nature mixed with a slightly bubbliness.  _ The younger brother sat down next to me on the beach and the older in front of us so he could still have my full undivided attention.    


“I’ve actually gotten that before a lot of times by my best friend Jeremy. He told me when I dressed up as her for my seventh birthday skateboarding party that I looked exactly like her if she had brown hair instead of black and blue. I’ve always acted more like Phineas though once you get to know me. I’m smarter than most people give me credit for, I’m an optimist but I have my limits when I just get fed up with a person and lose my temper, I’m inventive and creative while still making time for the people that I love and care about if I can.” I pulled out my StarkPhone to show them the picture that I got to take with Swampy even though I knew that they most likely had no idea who he was.    


“See I was about your age when the show was on its last legs, I was fourteen and in my junior year of high school. I was always ahead of my classmates since I was smarter and more determined than they were not to brag or anything. I consider myself just intelligent and that’s about it. Anyways, I tend to ramble and babble back on track. I got to meet the creator of the show Jeff “Swampy” Marsh and he changed my life. He was so nice to me, he even told me that if Isabella and Phineas had children in the future they would probably act almost exactly like me. I learned a lot through him when he showed me and the person who introduced us to each other my friend Doug who plays Plankton on Spongebob. I even got a small bit part in what I consider the final episode The Longest Day Of Summer and I told Phineas that it truly was the best day ever and I started crying after that.” I signed my story as I told it and dried my tears as they probably thought that I was pathetic.    


“That’s so cool!! I’m super jealous, I would have given anything to voice a character on that show.” I laughed at the younger boy and then the younger brother turned to me starting to sign. 

_ I love Ferb, to me he was the most relatable thing on the planet since he taught me that I didn’t need to speak to be bright and funny. That’s so cool that you got me those creators we’re so jealous.  _ Greg went to sit down with us and put an arm around my shoulders.    
“I knew that you could get them to talk to you. They’re amazing kiddos and they could use a person like you.” Greg smiled at me and I couldn’t help the incessant smile on my face.    


“I thought that you were going to surf with that new board sunshine? Did you get distracted again?” Rob teased me and I turned to glare at my old friend standing up and dusting off my swimsuit bottoms. I untied my shoes and took off my socks feeling the sand that nearly burned my toes and picked up my surfboard avoiding the two brother’s so that I didn’t hurt them with it.    


“You surfboard too?! That’s epic, we never really learned to do it since our parents passed but we always wanted to.” Ethan looked down at the sand until Wingman licked his face and I couldn’t help but giggle at the fact that he wanted to make him happy. I hit the water and made sure that I was out far enough that my board would actually work and it worked like a dream as my friends all cheered for me from the other side of the beach. I hummed the theme song to Phineas and Ferb as I surfed through the water on my new favorite thing in the entire world and watched as Rob was thoroughly engaged with the twins speaking and signing much like I was to make sure both twins understood him. I thought to myself that I could grow to love these two brothers and so could my dad as Ethan spoke excitedly with his arms doing half of the work. I chuckled wondering if showing off would be a good idea since I was pretty skilled with a surfboard and decided to walk to the other side of my board as the twins turned to look at me in awe. I smiled to myself that I could please them and make them smile and laugh when I decided to make silly faces at them while walking backwards towards the front flipping myself around as I saw a giant wave coming my way and I tilted my board upwards as I rode it up and then back down before jumping off it. The water was really cold but at this point I should probably be used to that at this point. Not all the water could be like in Hawaii. I sat up from the water and sat back on my board paddling back to shore with my hands. The brother’s were hugging me the next thing I knew and ethan was talking excitedly at me. This boy definitely had some ADHD but that could be cured with the proper medication. 

“You were so amazing out there!! I don’t think I’ve seen something that awesome in my entire life!! How did you do that?” He asked me and I got down on the elder brother’s level signing to the younger one who was nervously playing with the fringe of his black hair.    


“Well a lot of practice for one thing, some of that stuff was just luck. Of course the riding up the wave is something that you have to practice but the faces I was just kinda showing off. I’m not confident enough to do things like that normally but for some reason both skateboarding and surfing make me almost cocky because I can do a lot of tricks.” I signed to the younger brother as the words came from my mouth and Steven just smiled shyly while signing back to me. 

_ I think that it’s awesome that you’re able to do everything that we want to try. We’re only decent at skateboarding because Greg wanted for us to have a quicker way to get from place to place around here than walking. Can I see your surfboard?  _ I leant the board down so that the two brother’s could look at it and the older one looked at me with eyes alight with wonder and joy.    


“ Beast Boy was my favorite hero on that cartoon too!! I was so excited when we got here and I could actually have a conversation with Greg Cipes. Did he tell you about how he did all the sounds for the animals himself?” He asked me sitting next to me dipping his feet in the water while his brother was still looking at my board.    


“Yeah he did tell me about that, it was inspiring to hear that he was so into his character. They could have just had used recorded sounds of animals but nope he decided that he wanted to do it himself. Beast Boy was my childhood character that changed my life forever. Through his light and humor I learned to laugh at myself and his punny jokes. I’m a vegetarian so having someone that was the same way that I was minus the fact that I would probably die without eggs and bread along with cheese.” I signed to the brother what I had just said when he moved the board so that I could put it over my lap.    


_ Ethan loved Beast Boy because they’re both annoying…  _ I laughed at the deaf younger brother and his older sibling only glared at him. 

**_I’m not annoying dear sir, I’ll have you know that I’m older than you by fifteen minutes so therefor that makes me the boss of you. It’s true though, I loved Beast for his humor and his heart. Even though I hated Terra for hurting him his line about how he knew her better than anyone and that she wasn’t evil broke my heart._ ** I couldn’t help my bright smile at watching the two brother’s bicker through sign language.    


_ I am of the firm belief that Terra didn’t have much of a point as awesome as her powers were. She hurt my favorite character and all I wanted to do afterwards was give him the biggest hug while trying to get him to laugh with my cheesy puns and jokes towards animals. I felt like the creators just didn’t think that Raven and Beast Boy could possibly work together at the time. I still want them to be together but that was a rough draft in season six that we never truly got. Don’t even get me started on that unless you want for me to start ranting slash raving to quote my favorite villain from Nickelodeon Plankton.  _ The twins both laughed at me and that was when I got a good look at their swim trunks. The older one wore shorts that had Perry on them and the younger one had both the main characters.    
“Do you two want to come with us to the animal shelter? I want to get Abby here a pet so that she can have a friend to make the mansion back at home a little bit less lonely.” Greg came up to us and I looked up towards slightly upside down and nodded my head fervently.    


“Tell you two kids what, I’ll teach you two how to surf when we come back. It’s really not that hard to practice once you get it down to a science.” I told them and the older of the two brother’s gave me a big hug. 

“I think I could really grow to love you like an older sister Abigail Stark. You’re an incredible person and I want to spend more time around you.” Ethan smiled brightly at me helping his brother off the sand until they got back to their original spots where my backpack was. I put back on my clothes and sneakers forgoing the socks since I would just get back in the water once I got back.    


“I’ll be back in a few hours okay? I just got a call from JJ and he wants me at the studio for recording today. I thought that we were waiting until tomorrow but they want it done today. I’m sorry Abby.” I hugged Rob kissing his cheek as I picked which board would go in his car.    


“Can you do me a favor? Can you take the Mikey board with you? I want to use my Beast Boy one.” I asked him and he took the turtle one bowing before me while I just laughed at him.    


“I’ll take the backpack as well, is everything including the gift bag in here? You won’t need a water bottle, Greg’s house is practically crawling with them.” Rob joked as I finished my smoothie that was mostly warm and disgusting.    


“Yeah, everything is in there already I’ll just do this with my towel since I’ll need it again.” I put my towel around my shoulders and Greg came back with two helmets and I picked the Beast Boy one. It had him on a skateboard with a bright smile on his face. It just made me want to give him the tightest hug possible and I strapped it to my head watching the twins take the other two offered ones that had Phineas on one and Ferb on the other. I smiled knowing that he cared about them and watched him interact with Rob.    


“Alright kids, let’s hit the road come on Wingman!!” He called out to his dog who was playing with the twins but came to his master when he called as Greg put him in front on a leash.    


“He pulls me on my board, it took us a while for him not to go really fast but it helps because he gets exercise and I don’t have to leave him at home.” I smiled at my friend getting on my new board hearing it wheels going beneath my feet. If there was one thing that I loved most of all about both skateboarding and surfing was that both got the wind in my face and my hair blowing every which way and I enjoyed that feeling even when it got in my face. As we boarded through the boardwalk dodging people and Greg waved to a couple more of his friends as I looked at them trying to not feel too bad for them but I think they could tell that I did anyways.    


“ It’s okay if you feel bad for us Abby, we won’t judge you. I mean you’re really smart so maybe you could do something to help.” Ethan told me suddenly getting serious as we stopped at a red light before picking up again.    


“Funny you should mention that, I have somewhat of an idea but I’ll need the two of you to help me make it happen. Greg told me what happened to your clothing store and I’m really sorry that happened. I want to make it as better as I can though. I’m going to see if it’s not too late to use my inheritance to buy the property out from under the mall that they want to build there and make it into a student center or just a center for people like you that have no place to call home. I’ve already designed a music center where you two can play music or learn to do it, an animation room where I’m going to ask a bunch of my voice acting friends to do panels for all of you. I’ll have tutors and teachers to help people get their college GED’s that will allow for them to get better work and even if they’ve been here so long that they couldn’t go to high school they can get their diplomas. I’ve also got a cafeteria already sketched out where all of you can get a hot meal. It’ll take a while before I can get it done officially and I would rather my dad was here for the opening day but there isn’t anything I can do about that.” I explained my story and idea to the boys and they both looked at me with eyes alight with wonder. 

“You don’t have to do that Abby, I mean it would be epic if you could but that sounds like a lot of work in very little time.” Ethan warned me and I instantly missed his bright smile and almost loud and bombastic nature.    


“I have all this money once I do what my father’s right hand man wants me and take over the company. At least until I see my dad again and I’m able to hug him so tightly. I’ll bet that he would love you two kids, he always wanted more than just me but he got busy with Stark Industries and when I created the Starkphone business just skyrocketed. If this is what I have to do to make the world a better place than I don’t really care if I’ll be miserable. It’s just one more instance of me putting other people above myself.” I skated behind Greg and wingman but when he turned to face me for just a second I could see how much what I just said affected him.    


“What would make you happy Abigail Stark? I’m sure that your father wouldn’t want for you to be miserable.” I thought about what he just asked me because technically nobody ever asked me that before and just figured that I would take over my father’s company. 

“Nobody has truly ever asked me that before, everyone has just figured what I want to do with my life. I guess if I had to do something different I would want to be a voice actress but I can’t. I could never get away with doing that. Not with Obadiah running my entire life.” Ethan pulled on the sleeve of my sweatshirt and I turned to look at the young boy who had a bright smile that was on his face.    


“I’m sure that if you just sat down and talked with him he would understand!! You would be an amazing voice actress, Rob showed us what you and Jess did yesterday outside of Warner Brothers Studios. You were really amazing working off of them and I could tell that was something that made you really happy. You have enough friends Abby that it shouldn’t be that hard to launch a career out of something that would actually make you happy. A wise man once told me this, you are who you choose to be.” I laughed at the little boy who had just quoted one of my favorite movies and we stopped outside of a building that was labeled  _ Venice Beach Animal Shelter _ . 

“Come on Abby, right through here.” I jumped off my skateboard after putting my foot down and picked it up with my hand finally getting a good look at it for the first time and it caused me to smile at it. There was so much thought put into all the gifts that he had gotten for me and I loved each of them for a different reason.    


“I’m officially jealous of that skateboard, I want it so badly!!” I laughed at the older brother as the younger twin caught up to me and started signing to me.    


_ I’m sorry that you’re going through such a rough time right now. I know that you’re trying to smile and make it seem like everything is okay but most of the time you’re dying inside. My brother acts the exact same way when it gets down to it he covers it up with a smirk and a joke but I know how he really feels. I haven’t seen him this genuinely happy in a really long time. I think you mean more to him surprisingly than he lets on. I’ve never seen him get attached to someone this rapidly. If you really make good on your promise and your father comes back and adopts us as his own I think that will mean the absolute world to my brother and me.  _ I smiled at the younger brother and signed back to him using my words carefully. 

_ I know that my dad will agree once he meets the two of you he will do everything in his power to make you his own. I always keep my promises otherwise I wouldn’t make them to people in the first place. My dad promised me that one day he would adopt me, the next day I was released from the orphanage. When he gets back one of the first things I’m going to do is take him here. He will instantly fall in love with both of you. Rob told me that you could have gotten surgery to hear better, do you still want that or are you comfortable where you’re at in terms of not being able to hear? _ I walked through the door as Ethan ran around petting all the animals that he could when a young lady came into the room where we were.    


“Greg!! I take it you’re here for the golden retriever as a friend for Wingman?” The young woman asked and the voice actor just shook his head at her.    


“I’m comfortable with just Wingman right now, I’m here with a girl who needs a pet though. Abby, can you come here for a second?” I followed to where he was standing waving to the girl shyly and somewhat awkwardly.    


“This is Abigail Stark, she’s the one that I was interested in getting the dog for. She’s kind of is in dire need for a friend to keep her company during the days when her father isn’t around.” Greg introduced me to the girl and she only shook my hand.    


“It’s a pleasure to meet you Miss Stark, any friend of Greg’s is a friend of mine. I’m sorry about what happened with your dad that must have been totally awful. Now, how long have you wanted a dog?” She asked me holding open the door to the playroom as I saw all sorts of dogs and cats all meowing and howling when they saw new people coming in. 

“I’ve wanted a dog since I was a really little girl, around the age of nine. They’ve just always kind of spoke to me and I know that I could be a great pet owner. I most often have to take care of my dad so I’m used to it.” I moved a lock of hair back into my ponytail that was still wet from when I dove into the water off of my surfboard. 

“That’s really sweet, I have to make sure that the people adopting our pets are good decent people. I’m an expert at reading them though so I’m used to having people like you coming in to look at getting a furry friend. You have a golden retriever in mind right? They’re great pets and companions to people who are lonely much like you seem to be at the moment. She’s a puppy but that only means that she can be a bit more excitable than the dogs who are older than she is.” The young girl, who’s name was Joanne if I was reading her name tag right. 

“It’s Jo actually, my fully name is only used by one person and that’s my mother.” Jo joked and I laughed to myself at the fact that I had embarrassed myself further by blurting out things that I really hadn’t thought of beforehand. She led me into a room that had a little girl puppy at the center who’s little ears perked up at the sound of footsteps.    


“Ellie, this is Abby, she’s interested in adopting you for her very own.” The little dog looked up at me with soft honey brown eyes as she walked towards me sniffing my hand to make sure that I wouldn’t harm her. Once she realized that I wasn’t a threat to her in any way she instantly started to lick my face and I giggled at her.    


“I see that she likes you just fine, she can be a little bit clingy so now you’ll have to adopt her.” Jo teased as she went over to the twins already welcoming the new people including the new dog that came into the room Wingman with Greg following right behind him. I was a little bit apprehensive because she would have to get along with him if me and Greg were going to be good friends like I felt we would be. But once she sniffed him and could see that he was truly one of the best animals she slowly warmed up to him as I took pictures of her with the twins and Greg took some of her with me.    


“I need to have this dog, I really and truly do. How does this work?” I asked the woman in question who had already came back with paperwork.    


“She does have a fee that you’re going to have to pay. I try to keep them not too bad though because a lot of the poor and homeless people come in here looking for animals and pets. Since she is still so young she is more expensive than I would usually offer though.” I signed all the paperwork giving her my credit card so that she could charge it with the information that was needed.    


“Can I change her name though? I already have one of my boyfriends named Elliot in my relationship and it might get a little bit confusing.” I requested and Jo just sat down next to me with her hand on my shoulder giving me back my credit card.    


“She’s yours now so if you wish to rename her than you can. I think that you two are going to be a match made in heaven together.” She told me with a small smile and I just looked at the puppy with the warm and bright brown eyes.    


“I want to name you Belle, what do you think?” She just barked happily at me and I could tell that the name was going to stick.    


“Beauty and the beast fan I take it? You have excellent taste that was my favorite movie as a kid and still is one of my favorites to this day.” I grinned at the young girl as my new puppy came to sit on my lap.    


“That’s how you know that they trust you did you know that? At least that’s what Wingman does with me.” Greg informed me with a soft smile as Belle yipped and smelled his hand licking it gently. I could see that she was immensely friendly and I waited for her to leave so that I could stand up.    


“Let me just get you a leash for her even though in your house and on the beach she can run free and we recommend that you do give her some time off of it. We’ll also need to get a collar for her but we have some really cute ones.” Jo told me after my dog had left my lap and she took me to the counter while the twins petted and played with her. She gave me this light pink collar that had her name already imprinted on it and this leash that had an adorable Beast Boy on it.    


“I love that one, it’s adorable. I’ve always been a sucker for animation and voice acting obviously.” She just laughed at me as I took all my items back to where my puppy was sitting quietly and she came towards me as I got down on her level putting her collar over her neck and attaching her leash.    


“Good girl, you’re such a good girl aren’t you my little beauty?” I asked her in a softer voice and she only licked my cheek.    


“Now that we’ve got that squared away, I say that we hit the beach again and teach these little rascals how to surf don’t you agree Abby?” Greg asked me as Ethan nodded his head enthusiastically and helped me up off the ground my little doggie leading the way through the halls and back to where we had put our skateboards.

“If you tell her to sit after you get on the board that would be the safest way until you can teach her to pull the board once she gets a little bit older.” Joanne told me and I followed her instructions taking the lead back to the beach where we had started our day. My dog happily barked along with Wingman as we taught the twins how to surf, Rob came back later on throughout the day and we spent time together as a small intimate family. That night before I went to bed I took Belle out for a small walk feeding her food and she fell asleep next to me cuddled under my arm as I had Bugs and Beast Boy under my other arm and a happy smile on my face as that was the end to another perfect day. 

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi all!! I'm sorry that this took so long as I had finals for my first quarter at community college and I'm having surgery later on in the week so I don't know how long it will take me for the next chapter to come out. This is one of my favorite things that I have ever written mostly because it allows me to write my favorite voice actors judging by panels and interviews on Rob Paulsen's actual podcast Talkin' Toons.


	3. Chapter three

_ The rest of that week me and Belle somewhat fell into a routine of sorts. In the morning I would take her for a walk before I went down to Venice Beach to do meditation and talk with Greg in the morning before he twins got to where we were and I gave them both surfing lessons. Ethan seemed to be a natural at the water while Steven was getting better but was still a little bit skittish around it. In the afternoon the four of us would troubleshoot ideas about the center that I had ended up out-buying that made the headlines and let me tell you that Obadiah was completely not happy with me when he discovered I wasn’t planning on taking over the company but still wanted to do this. Pepper and I had our girls day where she had taken me to get my haircut to my shoulders since it had been getting really long and to find a new dress for the shooting of Sesame Street. We had gotten our nails done as well and I had blue with pink little hearts on each of my fingers. My boyfriends and I had been getting along perfectly and they had already thoroughly welcomed my new animal to the party as well. I had to email the actors that had all confirmed that they were coming to my birthday party on the fifth of April with an apology and I think they were a little confused as to why I had told them to forget the entire thing. Since I got Belle things were a bit easier at home and I could stand the silence a little bit better. I think that was partially what Greg was teaching me though, to find that center and that balance in times of struggle. I had emailed back Joan telling her that I had one more idea of helping Telly the neurotic muppet with finding that exact same center. She had loved the idea and wrote it into the script that I had received the next day with my parts highlighted. I was really nervous suddenly about the thought of being on national television but I knew that with Jeremy and Elliot in the audience supporting me I could do anything that I wanted to.  _

_ “Miss Stark, it is seven thirty, remember you have your tour of the Nickelodeon studios today with your boyfriends.”  _ The sound of Jarvis is what woke me up from my contented slumber and I smiled at my puppy who was still sleeping snuggled into my arm.    


“Belle, mommy has to get up and I kind of can’t move while you’re laying on my arm.” I warned her after I took my medicine and her little ears perked up at the sound of her name. She happily barked and went through the small doggie door I made for her that attached to my bedroom door. I giggled to myself swinging my legs over the edge and picking out my outfit for the day that had my new shirt that Greg had bought for me along with white jean shorts and my favorite Donatello sweatshirt and sneakers. I couldn’t wait until I got to meet the new voice actors and have a great day touring the studios with Tom and Doug as my main tour guides. After I showered and dried my hair using my new hair bow and smiling as the edges of it framed my head much better than my old hairstyle did. I was never really cut out for hair that was too long but this hair length I could deal with. I went through my bedroom door seeing the one person that I didn’t want to see sitting at the kitchen island. I wondered why Jarvis hadn’t warned me but then again this was Obadiah Stain he probably had his own key.    


“Can I help you with something?” I asked him and he only glanced up at me a fake smile on his face.    


“Actually yes, you’re just the girl that I’m looking for this morning. I need someone to give a press conference about what the state of the company is going to be and you’re just the girl to do it. Go put on a different outfit, it’s not an animation nerds panel.” I rolled my eyes at him for the effort taking my fruit from the fridge and turning to look at him with a raised eyebrow.    


“Nice try, go and do it yourself, I’ve got things to do today that are way better than being your little puppet. I already told you, I’m through with you trying to push me around.” I reminded him grabbing the last of my vanilla yogurt and adding that to the blender as well.    


“And here’s to think that I thought Tony actually raised you to be a nice and good little girl who does what she’s told.” I thought about just being honest but he had come into my home bossing me around so he was pretty much asking to get the boot.    


“He did raise me to be good and kind but he also raised me to not take bullshit from somebody if I didn’t trust them. I don’t trust you and I never will so you need to stop trying to run my life. Nobody tells me what to do or how to live my life but me. If I want to spend the rest of my days loving cartoons and having a career in voice acting than that shouldn’t be any of your business.” He glared at me as I turned on the blender getting one of my water bottles that had the Donatello I grew up with on it and filled it to the top with water.    


“But you’re a genius so why even bother wasting it on something so pathetic as an acting career. You’re not ever going to get work in that industry. Why not just come and be the girl that your father wants you to be and work in his place? He isn’t coming back, he’s gone.” I glared at him grabbing my sketchbook and Bugs Bunny that were on the couch from where I had been drawing last night and putting them into my backpack.    


“If you really knew my dad at all you would know that he loves me and as long as I’m happy he’ll be proud of me. He raised me to respect animation and the people that make it. I’m sure that he wasn’t expecting me to be this obsessed with it but it’s what happened. And for your information I do have a job lined up that will hopefully work out. Rob showed the creator of the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles my old sketch that I made back when I first met him of my original character and he recreated her for the style of the show making her the pink turtle. She’s a sea turtle with darker freckles that match my own that I have. Not that you really care if I have acting jobs lined up. I leave tomorrow morning with Jeremy for New York City for the slot that I got on Sesame Street.” My smoothie finished and I took one of the multiple mason jars filling it up and then some. I topped it off with my favorite purple straw and knew that I had the older man pegged.    


“I can’t believe you sometimes Abigail, you are the most selfish young woman that I have ever met. Sure, you pretend that you care about other people like the homeless people of Venice Beach but why are you really building that center? It’s because you want for others to love you so much and people will always see the same little girl who can’t give on single press conference for the loss of her father.” I glared at him taking my smoothie and sipping at it gently while tying my shoes and slipping my backpack over my shoulders.    


“You’re one to talk about acting selfishly, my dad has been gone for two weeks and you’re using this as an advantage to backstab him. He’ll never see the you that I do because he sees the good in almost everybody. It’s something that I love about him but sometimes when it comes to people like you he can’t see their true intentions. How about this, you take over Stark Industries since that’s so clearly what you want to do? And while you’re at it get off of my back.” I snarked whistling for my dog and leaving before he told me another hypocritical thing. 

“Don’t worry about him okay baby? He’s just a jerk.” I told my dog who just cocked her head to the side completely confused as to why I was acting this way. She licked my hand as I laughed at her opening the door to my car as she hopped into the passenger seat and I rolled down the window for her so she could stick her head out of it. I started my car driving down the road to pick up the first of my boyfriends hearing the typical screaming as he went running out of the house and into the car.    


“Everything alright?” I turned around to ask my boyfriend only to see that he had cut his hair to look like Danny Phantom’s again. 

“Yeah just my old man throwing a hissy fit over the haircut I got late last night. I snuck out to get it because my old hair just wasn’t me you know? As cute as Howl is, his style I don’t think it suited me as a trans woman. It looked too feminine, it doesn’t help that he wants me to not take testosterone so every month I get that reminder of my original gender. You look like you’ve just been through hell though, is everything okay baby?” I realized that one of my original things that made me blush faster than anything else was Elliot calling me baby.    


“Well I did have a run in with satan trying to tell me that he wanted for me to do a press conference for him and that it wasn’t an animation nerd panel and to change my clothes. I told him obviously no and that I already had plans with you guys to go and tour the studios with my friends. He decided that would be the perfect moment to act like the asshole that he is and threaten me that if I didn’t do as he said that my voice acting career wouldn’t ever go anywhere and that when it didn’t there would be no more second chances to take over the company. I called his bluff and he got even more pissed off at me asking how I was raised to be this person that I am today. I told him obviously with a roll of my eyes that animation wasn’t a bad thing that in fact it was one of my favorite things in the entire world and one of the few things that are keeping me sane right now.” I sighed deeply as my dog looked at the backseat letting out happy pants when he saw my boyfriend. Elliot only sent me this worried gaze that I could tell he meant.    


“Need for me and him to have a few words? I promise that I can be highly persuasive when people want me to be.” Elliot offered as my puppy licked his face and he just let out this happy musical laugh at her.    


“Hi Belle, it’s nice to see you too and get kisses so early in the morning.” He joked and I only smiled at two of my favorite things in the entire world interacting.    


“I might just wind up taking you up on that offer Elliot. I just can’t get him to leave me the hell alone. It’s not like me wanting to be a voice actress is hurting anybody right?” I asked my boyfriend and he only nodded his head at me as he pushed a bit of his fringe out of his eyes.    


“That’s absolutely correct, besides you’ve spent your life surrounded by Rob Paulsen once you turned thirteen so you’ve already got a bunch of friends for life in the business. How’s the plans for the center going?” He asked me as my dog looked like he wanted to sit in the back with him and I let her out opening the backseat so she could jump up and cuddle with my boyfriend.    


“They’re coming along brilliantly thanks for asking. Ethan and Steven have a lot of truly great ideas. I know that my dad is going to love them and want to adopt them for his own. I’m kind of already planning out what to do with the guest rooms. You want to hear my ideas? I know it’s kind of a stupid idea but it’s what keeps me having faith that one day I’ll see him again and he’ll hold me so tightly again.” I started my car hearing the gentle purr of my Impala as I drove it down the road.    


“I always want to hear your ideas and I don’t think that it’s something stupid. You love those kids and I’m sure that I will too once I meet them. If it keeps you thinking that one day he’ll come back than who am I to complain about it? In fact, I’m proud that you’re not wallowing in self pity like you were last week. You look so much better just since you’ve meet Greg and I can tell that you look a lot more at peace with yourself. Is the mediation really working that well?” I nodded my head and fingered the earrings that were rose gold Minnie Mouse that Rob had bought me at Disneyland during my sweet sixteen. 

“I know it sounds so hippy and totally stupid but it’s something that I love doing. I go down there everyday to meditate and to talk with the people there and that makes me so much happier. Okay so here are my ideas, Ethan absolutely adores Phineas and Ferb more than anything else so I was thinking about painting the walls of one of the guest bedrooms to look like their backyard with Phineas, Ferb and Perry underneath the tree. Steven loves DuckTales and Pokemon so that one I haven’t really decided which one that I want to use yet. I’ll probably wind up using the theme for DuckTales since I want to keep in modern cartoons.” Elliot snuggled next to my dog in the back of the car and the scene caused me to smile.    


“ That is something that I find so amazing about you Abby. You are such a giving and free soul that you’ll help anyone who needs it no matter who they are or what they have done in their lives.” Elliot looked so soft at me and I smiled at him shrugging my shoulders openly.    
“It’s just me being myself, I’ve naturally always been loving and kind towards everybody. It sounds pathetic and cliche but I blame my Aspergers for the fact that I’m just too nice to people. My dad always told me that I would make the world a better place by just existing in it and that’s what I try to do. With every voice actor I meet I try to be myself so that I can gain another friend who loves the industry just as much as me. Sometimes I gain friends for life just by loving animation as much as I do. Friends like Tom Kenny, Doug Lawrence, and especially Rob Paulsen people that I used to idolize that I pinch myself now that I’m older and I know them. Even though they are so much older than me I’ve shared so many amazing memories with all of them. I’ve traveled to cons all the time with Rob to meet actors in our industry through him and he always was an inspiration for how I want to live my life. Like every moment is my last and I’ve always tried to live up to that notion.” I explained and Elliot only smiled at me softly while taking a sip from the coffee thermos that he brought with him.    


“Sorry I didn’t sleep that great, hence the hot chocolate that is in here. I don’t drink coffee. I find your life to be one of the most interesting mostly because you’ve met all these people who changed you into who you are today. They all love you so much clearly otherwise they wouldn’t be doing this for you.” I nodded my head wanting to turn on just something funny that I wouldn’t be into without Doug’s influence on my life. I decided to wait until I got Jeremy though because he would just make it more fun.    


“It’s okay, I’m the queen of not sleeping that great. I’ve been sleeping better since I got Belle though, I like to think that she’s my guard dog even if she’s a massive sweetheart. Hey can I ask you something? Would you be opposed to me maybe getting a tattoo? I’ll wait until my dad gets back so I’ll talk to him about it but there’s this really nice lady I met up in Venice Beach the other day with the twins while we were getting snow cones since it was broiling hot out that day. I want to get an image of Chip from Beauty And The Beast. You know the part where he first meets Belle and he says to her, wanna see me do a trick? And then he starts blowing bubbles out the top of his cup?” I asked my boyfriend as we stopped at a red light and he only grinned up at me.    


“I never really took you as the rebellious tattoo type, I’d love to get one though. Maybe a Supernatural one or something. I think that would look adorable though if you got it. You remind me so much of Chip mostly because you both seem to have this childlike innocence and this ability to talk to anyone once you really get to know them.” I took a sip from my smoothie before the light turned green and drummed my hands a little bit on the wheel to the radio playing softly in the background.    


“I mean I’ve always thought about it but never had a set idea until a few days ago when the twins were talking about characters they thought I acted like outside the tattoo shop. One of them was the cup with a chip down his spine. I don’t know if I really act like him but I am often times happy and optimistic to a fault. I guess that’s how he always acted. I want to get Lumiere, Cogsworth and Mrs. Potts one day too but for starters I just want to get the smallest one.” I continued down the road as my boyfriend hummed to the music that was playing when I realized that it was Carry On My Wayward Son. I started to sing it softly mostly under my breath until Elliot joined in but at a louder tone to try and get me to sing over him. 

“You sing so beautifully, I wish I got to hear it more often than just in a car or when you’re begged to.” Elliot thought aloud after the song was over as he got more kisses from Belle.    
  
"Well more often than not I’m embarrassed by my singing voice if I’m not on a stage. I get all self conscious even though most people I meet really love it. It’s not something that I’ve always done for the idea of feeling comfortable. I have to really trust you to sing around you because it’s my biggest secret.” I reminded him as we hit another red light before I turned down the second to last street hitting the apartments that were around Malibu. 

“Once you become a voice actress it might become easier for you. Which Turtle actor are you most hyped to meet? My money is either on Ben Schwartz or Josh Brener.” I laughed at my boyfriend with a bright smile on my face at the fact that I was really going to meet them today. In fact, by the end of the day Rob had called me last night and they wanted me to audition for my turtle even though they all knew I would most likely get her at least he seemed confident I would get the part so who knows, I could be joining the turtle legacy after today.    


“It’s kind of all four of them but the one that I’m putting above all the rest is Josh for a fact because I’m such a big fan of what he’s doing with Donnie. He made him more confident and cocky which I kinda love because he has every right to be. He’s the genius of all the turtles and without him they would all be stuck at the bottom of a ditch especially in this version.” Belle just playfully barked and I laughed at how my dog was even starting to have an opinion here.    


“Are her and Wingman D still getting along?” I nodded my head at the question thinking back to the day before when they were both playing in the waves at the beach together while I was training Steven on the surfboard.    


“Oh yeah, they’re seriously adorable together you’ll get to meet him today because he never goes anywhere without him. They’re fully simpatico as master and dog.” Elliot’s eyes lit up at the fact of meeting his one and only Michelangelo once we got to the studio today.    


“I’m so fucking excited about that by the way!! I can’t believe that I’m going to finally meet my favorite Mikey after these years of adoring that character from afar.” I laughed at my boyfriend turning down another street knowing this way by heart since I had been coming to the less ritzy side of town since I was a little girl. It amazed me that with all the money his mom made working as a waitress that they were still able to afford housing up here.    


“You’ll love him, he’s one of the most chilled out voice actors that I’ve ever met where you can almost ask him just about anything and he’ll give you a straight answer. I admire that about him, Rob used to tell me that nobody walks their own walk and owns it like he does. Now that I’ve finally met him I can’t help but agree wholeheartedly. He’s just this genuine and open person that everyone loves and accepts.” I reminded him and he just sighed wistfully while I couldn’t help but giggle at him since he would definitely freak out and probably cry like I almost did.    


“Does he talk like Beast Boy naturally or is it like most of the others where they have to change their voices to fit that certain character?” He asked me as we both watched the world go by and I smiled at him.    


“He does talk very similar to Beast Boy naturally, if you just made him a bit calmer than yes he does talk like him. I think he exaggerates his voice a little bit for the comedy aspect but he pretty much talks exactly like his Michelangelo that’s true. The first time he did his BB voice on me I nearly bursted into tears but I was giggling too. I just wouldn’t be me without his influence on my life as stupid as that sounds. I mean he’s an animated changeling who can turn into any and every animal possible and who has a tendency to be a combination of the biggest and funniest idiot on the planet. If you ask him what his favorite gag was which I did the other day, he’ll tell you that it was the episode where Mad Mod took over the town and turned it British. If you don’t remember, Beast Boy was one of the first to look at the hypnotizing screens and it turns him British for all but five minutes before Raven gets fed up with him.” I laughed at the memory openly and so did Elliot as he heard the picture that I was painting.    


“ That’s amazing, holy shit I never would have imagined that would have been his favorite too. When I was a really little girl that is one of the few comedic gags I remember perfectly in the back of my mind to the point where when I rewatched the series a few months ago after I bought it I was like I remember this episode perfectly. When Raven smacks him with his hair, the comedy in that show was too good.” I smiled brightly at the memory that I had shared both as a little girl and when I got older and got to meet the voice actor that had created almost cannon neurodivergent characters who easily had an ADHD diagnosis. 

“One of the thousands of reasons why Beast Boy is my favorite Teen Titan is because he is funny but he also had that emotional weight to him. I related to that feeling of alienation, that I was different from everyone around me considering that I was a certified genius. When I got my certificate I usually hate talking about this but it’s actually really funny, my dad got me these business joke cards in the style of Wile E Coyote since he was my favorite Looney Toons character other than Daffy Duck and Bugs of course.” My boyfriend laughed when I pulled the one that I kept in my wallet out of it.    


“Oh my god, that is so fantastic and hilarious. When did this happen?” I hummed openly trying to remember exactly how old I was. I knew it was before I met the voice actors but the years before that were kind of a blur of studying, spending time with my dad and watching cartoons.    


“I want to say that I was nine, when my dad comes back you’ll have to ask him since he’ll know without a doubt. The certificate is technically hung up in his room since he brags about it any chance he gets. The years before my thirteenth birthday are kind of a blur because before that I never really did anything but study, spend time with my dad and watch cartoons. It’s a little bit embarrassing how little time I spent actually doing things that I found fun before I met Rob. He was the one who taught me how to have a good time with the free time that I was given. I wouldn’t be the same fun loving, open and joking person without him most likely. Rob means so much more to me than just an idol that I used to have, he’s more like my uncle that I grew to love as a second father. It’s a strange thing but he taught me so much about myself that I never really knew about.” I had such a unique relationship with all my best friends that were voice actors but for some reason I would always be closest with the one and only man behind my childhood in Yakko Warner Rob Paulsen.    


“He loves you so much, he told me that you were like the daughter he never really had. I’m so jealous that you got to grow up with someone like him taking you by the hand and showing you how to be yourself. I thought that just the fact that you knew him was something to be jealous over but the fact that you two are so close I’ve never had a family member that I was close to like that.” I stopped at the stop sign that was right outside of Jeremy’s apartment complex sending him a text that we were almost there and he better be ready and have his shoes actually tied this time around.    


“I’m sorry that you can’t relate to any members of your family. I got sort of lucky because I have almost three families that came into my life. One being the most obvious and that’s my dad, I really do love everything about my dad even the faults that he has. He was this profound person in my life that showed me how to come into my own and that being myself is something honorable because than you have nothing to hide. Another family that somewhat chose me is my voice acting family. I wasn’t really expecting that one to happen to me but once it did I don’t know what I did with my life before then. Doug and Tom became my two crazy uncle’s, Rob like a second father to me, Stephen like my grandfather pretty much and Greg is pretty much my brother now. They all mean something important to me since I don’t know where I would be without them. My final family is made up of you, Jeremy and Belle. It’s a little bit embarrassing but it’s the truth.” I was blushing by the end of my speech as my boyfriend came out of the apartment complex thankfully with his shoes tied. He had on his old Teen Titans shirt on that had the most quotable saying from the show that pretty much everyone quotes and gets away with along with jeans and his AlMight sweatshirt that I got for him since he got into My Hero Academia.    


“See, my shoes are tied this time around. I actually got up a little bit earlier today.” I laughed at how that was the first thing my boyfriend told me with a  gentle kiss as I tasted his toothpaste.    


“Good to know that you can actually function like a regular human being.” Elliot joked and got some of the fringe out of his eyes that held a slight mischievous sparkle to them. 

“Excuse you, I’ll have you know that I am fully capable of functioning like a human my only problem is that I have insomnia so I’ll take all the sleep that I can get on a regular basis. It doesn’t help that I was really excited about meeting the one and only Greg Cipes.” I couldn’t help but smile at my boyfriend as I took a sip from my smoothie and my puppies ears twitched at the sound of a new voice as she looked at my boyfriend with her warm chocolate brown eyes.    


“ I don’t blame both of you for being excited, he really wants to meet both of you too. I’m still trying to get Belle adjusted to the routine but she seems to be loving it just as much as I am. It’s nice to get to space everything out since life is so stressful. I’m still kinda working out the kinks in it it’s why I haven’t seen much of you this week.” I apologized and Jeremy just fluffed with my hair gently playing with it.    


“If there’s one thing that you need to learn about our girlfriend Elliot is that routine is everything to her. She tries to space everything out to have it make more sense and be better for everyone but often times it becomes challenging and we need to get her away from it. Thankfully that hasn’t happened yet and she’s doing a decent job of spacing everything out to make time for everyone. I’m sure that once the center gets closer to opening day she’s going to have less and less time for us. That’s when we’ll have to call for an intervention to make sure she’s still taking care of herself.” I blushed under Jeremy’s attention as he only smiled at me giving Elliot a gentle kiss since he was in the backseat.    


“I love both of your new haircuts by the way, they’re both beautiful. I think that they suit you much better than what you had going on before. Doesn’t the hair get in your face?” Jeremy asked Elliot who only grinned at his boyfriend as I started the car up again.    


“Nope, not really, I mean it can but I’m used to it getting in my face and take those necessary precautions.” My boyfriend just shrugged his shoulders as I backed out of the complex and started heading down the road again actually knowing the way this time since we had passed it when we went home from Warner Brothers Studios the last time. 

“Are you sure that you don’t want to come with us to New York and Jersey Elliot? It’s not that big of a deal if you want to come and we can accommodate for your needs on the Starkplane.” I asked my boyfriend and he only looked up at me his blue eyes teaming with somewhat sadness.    
“I can’t come, I’m sorry. My dad would kill me if he found out that I was in another relationship. I haven’t brought it up because I didn’t want to seem like there was something wrong. I’m almost eighteen and I’ll be a full adult in May so it’s not even that big of a deal.” Jeremy only looked back at her sad but with a moment of understanding since he was probably in a similar situation with his stepdad. 

“I can understand where you’re coming from Elliot, my old man and I are the same way right now. He keeps making these inappropriate comments and I have no idea how to stop him from making them. Maybe if we take a break from everything and you were just honest with him he would understand? If not then you could always take Abby up on her offer to live with her in the mansion there’s plenty of room let me tell you.” He tried to keep it lighthearted and I smiled at the fact that my boyfriend cared so much about him.    


“That’s true El, I would be only happy to take care of you at my house. I want for you to be the happiest you possible. If that means you have to live at my house than that’s fine. You aren’t safe where you’re living right now and that’s not a good thing. Sorry I’m really bad at this, Jere’s probably better because he actually has a similar family problem. I only really have Obadiah and he’s not really that bad. Unless you’re Rob and you decide that the best idea is to flip him off while he’s arguing with Jarvis to let him into the mansion.” I joked and both my boyfriends started to laugh at me since I had told them about the story that happened on my way to Venice Beach for the first time.    


“I might just take you up on that offer, I’m getting so sick of sitting around and not being able to do anything about my family problems. I feel like I deserve better than what I got and even if my mom is alright she’s still just as bad as my dad if you really think about it. She says that she wants for me to be happy yet I’m still binding and haven’t had top surgery yet even though that’s what she promised me for my sixteenth birthday. I would love to travel with you and Jeremy and go to the amusement parks. It would give me more time to talk to Doug anyways.” I laughed at my boyfriend at just how easy he was to persuade to come with us. 

“He’s really excited to meet you, he hardly ever meets fans since as you know he’s naturally private. Be careful around him though because he’s easily prone to being jealous of him.” I teased and Jeremy just glared at me halfheartedly for bringing that up again.    
“I was ten and you were already enough out of my league at that point!! I couldn’t help being slightly jealous of how easily you two were getting along  with one another.” Elliot started to laugh at him while Belle just barked happily in the background trying to join in the laughter.    


“Wait a second, you were jealous of her friendship with Doug Lawrence? He’s like twice her age!!” He objected and Jeremy just sighed deeply playing with my fingers that weren’t on the steering wheel driving us to the freeway. 

“I know how bad that sounds, it was really bad but in my defence I was only ten at the time and wanted all of her attention. I know it’s selfish but that’s really what I thought at the time. She was already so ahead of me so to have this complete stranger come in and bound with her it kinda got my blood boiling even though it was massively hypocritical at the time because I had done a similar thing with Ciro Nieli. I’ve been in love with her since we were eight years old that’s when I realized it anyways but those feelings have been happening since maybe seven at the most when she had the science themed birthday party and she dressed up as Belle.” I smiled at my boyfriend kissing his cheek gently as he blushed slightly only returning the sentiment.    


“I think that it’s adorable, it wasn’t even half as bad as he makes it out to be. I love being around those guys because all of them can take a joke. He thinks it’s hilarious that you were jealous of him because it’s something so ridiculous that he can’t help but make jokes about it” I told Jeremy who only groaned slightly banging his head on the dashboard of my car.    


“I can’t believe you told him, he’s going to look at me in a completely different way now Abby.” He whined and I only rolled my eyes at my best friend shaking my head.    


“That my dear Jere-Bear is where you are almost entirely wrong. He still respects you and likes you just as much as before. The best thing about Doug is that he can take a joke at phase value and in fact he’s one of the quirkiest people that I know of. He introduced me into a whole world of humor that I had never really gotten into before when my dad tried to get me into Weird Al I was really young and couldn’t find him that funny. I appreciated his talent, I mean who doesn’t in this day and age but he was never one of my favorite artists. Not until me and Doug started talking more often when I was around fourteen. At first it was just me and Rob and I would occasionally keep Doug and Tom updated on how I was doing. It wasn’t until Doug invited me up to the Disney studios for the big finale episode of Phineas and Ferb that we really started to get to where we are today.” I gave a bit more of the backstory on how I grew to love the one and only inspiration for humorous villains everywhere Doug Lawrence. 

“I’m so stoked that I’m actually going to meet one of my icons of animation. It’s going to be great to finally see him in person. There’s something about his creativity that he brought to Plankton, like he didn’t need to be nearly as funny as he is in actuality. Part of it was the quirky and funny writing that they gave to him but he goes full crazy in the booth too.” Elliot looked so excited and I couldn’t help but return his sentiment. I had never seen him in the booth before so that would be absolutely hysterical to witness. 

“I spoke to him last night when he was driving home and he’s really excited to meet you too. He loves his job and getting to both make children laugh at his insanity and at the same time admire his tenacity is something that he carries with him all the time. Even if most of the people who watch the show don’t know his name he still loves his job so clearly. It’s something that I’ve always admired about him, that you don’t have to be a big name in the industry to still love your work.” Jeremy went into my backpack and I glanced over at him with my head cocked to the side.    


“I’m just getting a sneak peak at what you’re going to give the voice actors. Hey this one is awesome, is this for Ben Schwartz?” I turned my head a little bit seeing Dewey Duck that was from the newer DuckTales and smiled nodding my head.    


“Yep, that is for him. Even though my favorite duck is Huey now that they all have distinct personality traits I relate the most to him. I adore what they’re doing over there and it makes me really happy since I grew up on the classic cartoon with my dad. That was one of the few where he was like, you’ve got to see this. I also have one for Josh in there, Brandon and Omar. Plus Doug has been driving me crazy about asking for an updated one since his old one got ruined on the plane ride back from Orlando all those years ago so his is in there too.” I told him and he put my backpack back on the floor where he found it originally.    


“I think that it’s amazing that every voice actor you meet you give them fanart even if you aren’t that close to them afterwards. I’m sure that it means the world to them as actors getting something from their fans to actually keep. You should maybe make double’s, your art is good enough for it.” I nodded my head making the fifty fifty motion with my hand.    


“It depends on the person that I’m meeting with, if I spent my entire life idolizing them than I make two. I’ve even got another one for Greg in there that I accidentally left at home that he’s hopefully going to love. I’ve got two for Ben and Josh in there as well since they’re the two standouts in this series.” I told Elliot who only smiled softly at me while my dog licked the back of neck causing my hairs to stand up.    


“ACK!! I hate it when she does that, it makes me feel uncomfortable.” I tried to get the dog slobber off the back of my neck but wasn’t able to do that and drive at the same time. 

“It’s okay Abby, it’s just kisses. It’s not her fault, she’s only a puppy.” Jeremy reminded me nuzzling the side of my cheek before giving it a gentle kiss.    


“He’s right Abby, she doesn’t know any better and I’m sure that once she gets older then she’ll stop doing things that irritate you.” I sighed softly rubbing my dog’s ears as I pulled off the freeway letting her know that I was okay with her and that I still loved her. 

“I think that it’s sweet that she loves you so much for somebody who you’ve only had for about a week.” Elliot smiled at my puppy who only barked happily back at her nosing her hand and climbing onto his lap.    


“Hey Jere could you me a small favor, sign into my phone and put on my playlist that Doug made for me? I’m in the mood for some of the ridiculous songs that he sent me.” I told him and he nodded his head typing out the password on my phone that was something sentimental.    


“What is the password on your phone? Incase one day we switch spots and I’m needed to use your phone for music?” Elliot asked with a small smirk on his face not thinking that it was what he thought.    


“It’s Jarvis the name of my dad’s AI butler that he installed into the house. He used to be a real person when he was a young boy but he died before I arrived at the manor. He meant a lot to my dad and was more of a father figure than my own grandfather was towards him.” I explained the backstory  of my password to him as Jeremy went through my music finally finding the playlist that I told him to.    


“That’s surprisingly beautiful actually, it makes total sense now that I think about it. Leave it to Abby to make something so trivial have an emotional connection.” He gripped and I laughed at him as one of my favorite songs on the playlist started to play through the car.    


“Something that you need to learn about Doug is that he has a very quirky sense of humor. He made her this playlist since that was one of the first things that they really bonded over was a shared love for comedic writing. Most of these songs you can’t take seriously especially this one it is fun to sing along to though.” Jeremy told our boyfriend as I started to softly with David Lee Ross’s Just A Gigolo.    


“What? It’s catchy and I blame Doug for my weird obsession with these artists. Most of it is Weird Al but sometimes this playlist is all that keeps me sane. Especially now, this is what I drew to on repeat last night when I made all those sketches.” I moved a lock of my hair stopping at a red light and taking another sip from my smoothie that I had made. 

“I’m amazed that you love these wacky songs, I had no idea that you could be just as looney as I get sometimes. And Weird Al is an absolute legend in the music business. Half the time he makes better music from nothing than the original artists did.” I smiled at my boyfriend finding the studios easily enough and pulling into the window.    


“Miss Stark and company? They’re all expecting you in the front room. These are for you they will get you anywhere around and into the studios. Have a great tour!!” I took the one with Donatello on it from the new Ninja Turtles that happened to have my name on it. Jeremy’s name was on the bottom of one with 2012 Michelangelo and Elliot had one with Plankton on the bottom of it.    


“Thank you sir, have a lovely day!!” I told them driving up through the parking lot looking around at the studios in awe.    


“I can’t believe that after all these years I’m finally getting an up close look at the work behind the microphone and the animation process at the studio  I grew up watching.” Jeremy bounced excitedly in his chair waiting until I parked and then swinging open his door and letting out our boyfriend and my dog putting her leash on her while I put on my sweatshirt and my lanyard that I would keep for the rest of time. I opened my car door taking my boyfriend’s hands and walked through the front doors as we looked around at all the artwork hanging from the ceiling and around us. I had been dying to come here since the refurb a few years ago to get a good look at what had been happening. This new studio was absolutely astounding and one of the biggest things that I had ever seen. I heard the familiar laughter of Tom Kenny as he sat with the other members of our small party. As we continued down the hallway looking at everything and drinking it all in we all stood there in the middle of the room agape at just how huge everything looked.    


“Okay and I thought that the wardrobe room at Warner Brothers was awesome. They’ve got nothing on this right here, it looks like my childhood came to life.” Elliot stood at the front of us taking in every last little detail as Tom stood at the middle of the room just animatedly telling a story it seemed like. He always drank in the atmosphere and was able to be one of the best storytellers that I had ever met in my entire life aside from Rob. In the same section that he was entertaining you saw Stephen Hillenburg sitting on the couch rolling his eyes as he had probably heard this story a million times before, Doug and Greg sat in a really odd looking chair that looked like it spun around and tilted backwards their long hair flying every which way, and then there was one other man on the couch that I would know anywhere. I smiled though because it was the face of a friend hopefully, next to Stephen on the couch happened to be JJ Conway the assistant director of Rise Of TMNT. Doug noticed our group first and shot up from his chair coming over to us getting his long hair managed so that he looked somewhat presentable in front of Elliot and Jeremy most likely. I had seen the guy with slime in said long hair so that was something else entirely. 

“You must be Elliot, you probably already know who I am but for the sake of first meeting you for the first time I’m Doug Lawrence and I play Plankton.” He introduced himself doing that infamous voice that caused tears to swell in my boyfriends eyes.    


“I’m sorry, I’m really sorry, I grew up on your voice it’s just you were one of those characters that helped influence my own sense of humor.” I was really happy that my boyfriend seemed to be having the same reaction that I did when I first met him.    


“It’s alright Elliot, I had the same reaction to him when I met him at ten years old. I only got a hug for my troubles.” I joked having that memory lodged  into my brain as Doug just gave my boyfriend a tight hug that took him a moment to respond to. It was funny, I just knew that these two would be really good friends because Doug was just this naturally giving person who had a huge heart.    


“Now I don’t think I know you, you might want to refresh my memory a little bit.” He teased and I only rolled my eyes but welcomed his hug all the same. I always loved the hugs that all my voice actor friends had given me but if you were to force me to pick a favorite even that would be a toss up between Tom and Doug.    


“Gee thanks, nice to know that one of my oldest friends doesn’t even remember me. You know what, you’re officially being demoted.” I teased knowing that nobody could ever replace him in the back of my mind. Well except for maybe Rob and Tom but he knew that they were always my three favorite people. I caught up with the rest of the crew that were in the main room sitting down on one of the funky chairs.    


“Abby!! You have to try these you tilt back and they tilt with you.” Tom instructed with a happy smile as I did as he told me leaning back and feeling my headband fall off my head that Elliot caught. I laughed openly at just how fun this was tilting side to side and spinning around in circles.    


“Okay got that out of my system sorry about that I’m a massive child at heart. Well obviously I am, a lot of my really good friends are in the animation industry. I’m really botching up this introduction, hi I’m Abigail Stark or Abby.” I shook JJ’s hand as he only laughed at me with a small smile.    


“It’s alright, I had some warning that would happen and to be prepared for it. It’s a pleasure to meet you all the same. It’s always nice to meet new fans of animation especially since I’ve seen your Twitter account.” I blushed at the fact that he had seen me go off on multiple tangents.    


“ Oh, well if you’ve seen that than you already know how much I love cartoons and animation since that’s pretty much all I talk about.” Tom hugged me next and I gave the old voice actor a hug that had changed my childhood through his light and humor.    


“Hi Abby, I missed you kiddo. I’m glad that you and your boyfriends could make it, speaking of which Tom Kenny, Spongebob Squarepants.” He shook Elliot’s hand and he only let out a string of happy giggles at the sound of him doing the voice that we all knew and loved so much. I looked around to see where Jeremy was and he was off to the side just witnessing everything but not interacting. I found that to be strange but he was looking at where Greg was interacting with Belle and Wingman with a bright smile on his face.    


“Nervous to meet him? I was too, but here’s the thing, you don’t have to be nervous to meet him Jere-Bear. He’s one of the nicest and most genuine people in the entire world. Would you rather that I introduced you to him?” I asked my boyfriend who only nodded his head shyly but took my hand as I saw that JJ had something in his hands.    


“I’ll be with you two in just a second.” I told them and led my boyfriend to where Greg was and he looked up at me his blue eyes sparkling as he gave me a hug. 

“Hey Abby, glad you three could make it out here. There’s a lot to look at isn’t there? This is the first time that I’ve seen the new building too it’s crazy to look at all this around me.” I hugged the voice actor back dropping my boyfriend’s hand for a second.    


“Hi Greg, glad you could make it too, how are the twins today? Did you get to see them before coming down here? Oh, this is my boyfriend Jeremy Altega, Jere this is the one and only master of his craft Greg Cipes.” He only laughed at me but gave a hug to my boyfriend anyways.    


“The twins are great today, they miss you and I told them that you would come by tomorrow morning before you leave. So you’re the best friend turned boyfriend that I’ve heard so much about? It’s a pleasure to meet you, I wanted to meet you all those years ago but the timing was just really bad.” I let them interact going back to the couch where Stephen was sitting and in conversation with JJ.    


“I always wanted to let her come onto the show but she always told me it would be a cheap shot. She’d make an incredible voice actress though, at least that’s my biased opinion.” Stephen told JJ and I looked at them curiously with my eyebrow raised.    


“Umm, girl topic of discussion what’s going on?” I brought my presence to their attention and Doug only laughed at me coming to sit next to me on the giant couch.    


“Well when Rob first presented to me the idea that you had drawn all those years ago I thought yeah she’d make a kickass female turtle. If you gave her a different species of turtle like what we’re doing in this iteration and maybe you add a few things to give her some personality we could have the first ever female ninja turtle for girls to relate to. I knew that presenting the idea would be a challenge but the executives agreed that it would be a genius idea since while we have gone over really well considering the different take that we’re going for. I want to make a character that could understand all the turtles individually. One that will help Raphael become a better leader, help Leonardo learn to tone down the ego and sarcasm, understand Donnie’s technobabble and keep Michelangelo's ADHD under control. I want for you to audition for the role even though Rob has showed all of us a bit of your theater stuff and you would be perfect for the major character. You will be one of the main central turtles and we did actually figure out a backstory for her if you’ll see here.” He gave me the script as I skimmed through it chuckling lightly at Donnie’s technology talking that I could easily relate to since I grew up around a person who uses it all the time. I looked at the sketch of my character that was towards the end and it was signed by him when I noticed something around her neck.    


“Are these…” I had tears in my eyes at the fact that he had added something that a lot of people on the spectrum had including myself when I went to places like my high school where everything was just way too loud and obnoxious. They were a set of bright pink noise canceling headphones that had lightning bolts on the side of them. 

“Yeah!! We wanted to make a neurodivergent character but I actually did my homework on her and we had Donnie make those for her at the end of the episode. I’m so sick of every character having to act the same way and I thought that she would be absolutely amazing for people to look up to who are on the spectrum even though they have Julia over on Sesame Street already.” JJ explained to me and I couldn’t help but smile at my new friend that I had made these last few minutes.    


“Thank you so much for this opportunity, you have no idea what this all means to me and now it’s my turn to cry. I’ve spent most of my life wanting to get into the industry but having no way as to how to get there or thought that I could possibly have a career in it. Thank you so much you won’t regret this I promise. I would love to be a member of the team and will do whatever it takes to get there. It won’t always be easy, I know that because nothing in my life ever is and there might be some months where I won’t have work but I’ll just have to remember that I’m completely capable.” Doug squeezed my hand lovingly and I rested my head on his shoulder as he looked at the sketch he made for me.    


“That is really something incredible JJ, I love the stun guns as her weapons. Abby is something incredible and people will just grow to love her. It happens before you even realize it and pretty soon she’ll be a favorite character. I’m a little bit biased because she’s without a doubt my favorite person most days.” I laughed at Doug nudging his foot as Elliot came over to the couch sitting in front of me.    


“Oh my god, I just talked with Greg Cipes about Beast Boy and he gave me these check them out!!” He showed me the exact same sneakers that he gave me and I pulled up an image on my phone.    


“We’ll have matching ones, they were in my gift basket amongst a ton of other things. I got two new skateboards, a new surfboard, this shirt obviously, a Beast Boy plushie, a Michelangelo sweatshirt to match this one and my personal favorite that is now hanging in my room next to his poster…” I showed Elliot my honorary Teen Titans certificate and he just gazed at it in sheer awe.    


“He’s truly one of a kind, I’ve only known him about a week and he’s already changed my life. Oh speaking of which I had this idea that I wanted to let three out of four of you in on.” I told them and they all gathered around me along with Tom who had been goofing around with Greg and Jeremy.    


“What’s up Abby Cadabby?” Stephen asked me and I only laughed at my old friend launching into my story. 

“Well the first time I went to Venice Beach I heard about this clothing store for homeless people that was bought out for the creation of a mall. I thought to myself hmm what if I decided to make something better and buy them out. It wasn’t really that hard to out-buy the property of the next couple stores that shut down as well and here’s my idea: I’m creating a center for the homeless people of Venice Beach to learn and study so that they could get an education whether that be getting their GED’s in college or just getting their high school diplomas. One of my first ideas was to make a massive animation room where people like all of you in the industry could make speeches and give panels about what it’s like in the business. It’s still heavily in the developmental stages and I’m having a lot of help from the people that live there along with these two amazing twins Ethan and Steven.” I showed them my design plans so far and my favorite thing was the slides that led from building to building one of Steven’s ideas. Ethan’s was a zip-line that I put into question marks since some people would be afraid of heights.    


“Wow, I think that’s one of the best ideas I’ve heard in recent years. Will it be available for everyone or just the people who live in that area?” JJ asked me and I held up my finger showing him the back of the paper where I had drawn the bright red Stark busses that would shuttle people from place to place.    


“It’s funny that you mentioned that JJ, because that was one of the first ideas that I had. I’m going to make Stark busses that run on electricity to make it better for the environment and it’s going to go all the way to Anaheim. I want to make everything as easy as possible for everyone involved. Both my boyfriends are wanting to help by being tutors and Jeremy wants to be the head of the athletics division and make it more fun for the kids.” I explained how transportation was going to work and Tom only looked at my plans with a bright smile on my face.    


“Abby you really are a certified genius!! Oh show JJ the business cards.” I took one of them out of my wallet and showed it to my new friend who only laughed loudly at the inside joke.    


“My dad got them for me as a gag gift when I got my certificate in the mail. When I was a little girl he would show me classic Looney Toons and Wile E Coyote was always my favorite even to the point where my eleventh birthday was themed to Looney Toons. They were all there for evidence.” I gestured to the voice actors that were surrounding me and they all nodded.    


“That was the year after we had all met her, we all got shirts themed to our favorite characters made especially for us. She was obviously Daffy Duck since that is her all time favorite, I was Yosemite Sam, Tom was Marvin Martian, Rob was Bugs obviously because he’s the jokester out of our group and a huge stinker, Tony was Will E Coyote and we all had specially made shirts that fit our characters and personality. I think that was the one at the trampoline park wasn’t it?” Doug asked in clarification and Jeremy who had been talking with Greg came with him to join the rest of the group.    


“You’ve got it, that was the one at the giant trampoline park and we spent the entire afternoon bouncing around like cartoons ourselves. It was one of the greatest days of my life getting to goof around and actually see the adults get into it as much as the kids were. Rob was loving it probably even more than Abby was at the time since she got injured minorly but I don’t think Tony had planned on that happening.” Jeremy sat in front of me resting his head in between my legs with an upside down lopsided smirk. I rolled my eyes instantly knowing what he wanted having grown up with him since we were little children and started to card my fingers through his hair. 

“That sounds like quite the adventure I hope that I’m invited to the rest of them from here on out.” Greg joked sitting next to the dogs on the floor in a pretzel shape with a small smile.    
“Of course, the next one is going to just be a family party with all of you. It was originally going to be much bigger but in light of recent events and the fact that my birthday is in three weeks even if somehow a miracle happens I still don’t want anything but a family party. It was actually Rob’s idea to invite all of you or whoever is able to make it. I know that work and hours are really weird for all of you so if you’re not able to make it I won’t blame you in the slightest.” I saw two men come out of the main room looking around until his eyes landed on JJ who was still sitting in the corner next to Stephen. 

“JJ, it’s time for the meeting are you coming with or staying with the rest of these guys?” He stood up offering me a hand up with his copy of the script still in hand for the moment.    


“Yeah I’m coming, she is too, she’s auditioning for Lizzy. Abby, this is Kevin and Peter they’re the creators of the original comics. She’s a huge ninja turtle fan obviously but she is also a fantastic actress if you are asking me.” He bragged and I found myself blushing to the tips of my ears.

“I don’t know about fantastic but I played a lot of characters in high school and in college when I wasn’t busy studying. Abigail Stark pleasure to meet you.” I shook both of their hands with a small smile nervous though because I was worried about what they would think about me.    


“You’ll do great Abby we’ll be there for your audition and Spongebob doesn’t film until later when we’ll give you all a private tour. The meeting shouldn’t last for very long it’s just a read through and those are usually really fun actually. You get to try out different things for your specific character. Me, Bill and Tom have come up with so many great gags just through doing the read throughs. What about you Greg? Did anything crazy ever happen during the Teen Titans read throughs?” Doug asked Greg who only laughed openly at him his long hair thrown back with a bright smile.    


“Oh you have no idea, me and Kharay used to absolutely insane things since Cyborg and Beast Boy are the comedy relief and with Go it’s pretty much do whatever you want and that’s so much fun. Originally when I first got the role we didn’t know what would stick and what would eventually change but a lot of what did stick was the fact that we worked in the same booth often so we could bounce off each other. That hardly ever happens in animation but it might happen with you at least at first you might be put with one of the other turtle actors.” Greg just put his hand comfortingly on my shoulder and I leaned into the touch getting kisses from both of my boyfriends and a hug from Tom before I left with the other creators.    


“So you’re a Stark? How did you get interested in animation if you don’t mind me asking?” Kevin asked me as we walked through the enormous hallways and I was too busy looking around at everything. 

“Well ever since I was little and first got adopted by my dad there was something about what you could do with an animated character. You could make them animated and crazy like Beast Boy or serious and stern like Raven. The world was my oyster in terms of what I could relate to since real people have always been a bit of a head scratcher for me. I have Aspergers and got diagnosed with it when I was seven. I love watching cartoons because it’s really the one thing that has always been there for me in this life. When I was lonely and my dad was working late nights I could put on a DVD of one of my favorite cartoons and just marathon the hell out of it with popcorn.” JJ only smiled at me and held the elevator door open for me.    
“Rob praises your talents to the highest degree so we expect for you to blow our minds with this character. You have to amaze people because she’s not in the cannon and in order to be accepted into that we want to make a strong female character who has emotional weight to her. People call us a Teen Titans Go lookalike and we want to prove them wrong.” Peter told me with harsh brutal honesty but I knew that he was right. 

“I will try my hardest to amaze all of you and bring this character to life. I want to have a career in this business that alone would mean the absolute planet to me. I’ve been in love with acting and animation for as long as I can remember so this will be an adventure. A lot of my voice acting friends have been waiting for me to become a part of the industry to the point where Stephen has asked me multiple times to join the Spongebob crew as a new character. I think that it would be a cheap shot though so I always told him no.” I pushed back a lock of my hair and made sure that everything looked alright despite me looking like massive trash for classic cartoons.    


“I think that we will be pleasantly surprised by you. The others don’t know that you are here so we will explain what we want to do with you once we get to the meeting. Rob has only told them that there will be a surprise today. I have all the faith in you that if you just be yourself the job will be yours.” JJ told me and I smiled at the new friend that I had made just by talking to him.    


“ Oh tell them about your idea with the homeless school!!” He said excitedly and I just laughed at him taking my sketchbook and flipping to the proper page.    


“It’s still under massive amounts of development but I went to Venice Beach for the first time around a week ago and just felt this need to do something for the people of our state and this side of the coast. I’ve bought the property that was going to be used to be a massive shopping center but instead I paid more than they did and the property is mine now. In its place I am building a center where the homeless people all the way from Anaheim to Miami where I’m from will be able to do their schooling like getting their GED’s in college or their high school diplomas. There will be a massive animation center where hopefully I can beg some of my friends that work in the animation industry to give panels about how the business works.” I explained showing them the blueprints and they looked at them in awe.    


“You really are a Stark holy shit this is some of the most impressive technologically advanced buildings that I’ve ever seen. We would be honored to be a part of this project of yours even if the job for you doesn’t go through. I assure that the others will too since they love being there for their fans.” Kevin told me excitedly as we reached the proper floor and I adjusted my lanyard around my neck and the sweatshirt around my shoulders looking down at my sneakers. I don’t think I had ever been so nervous to do something in my entire life and I had thought meeting Greg Cipes gave me anxiety. I took some deep breaths just following them to the room where all the voice actors for the turtles were around a giant table with Rob at the front of it talking about something or rather. I gripped the ends of my sketchbook that I would give them my drawings hoping to God I didn’t stutter because that would embarrassing, yes a girl who wants to be a voice actress who stutters might as well crush her dreams before she even starts. JJ just held the door open for me as Rob’s blue eyes lit up seeing me coming through the doors.    


“Abby!! Right on time come on in don’t be nervous I was just about to introduce your character to these guys.” He hugged me and I easily hugged my second father figure back.    


“Why don’t you introduce yourself first? That way you can explain to them why you are here.” Peter told me trying to get me out of my comfort zone as I sat by Rob at the front of the table.    


“Hi, I’m Abigail Stark it’s a great pleasure to meet all of you I’m a really big fan of what you all are doing with this new iteration of turtles. I was raised in an orphanage and adopted at five years old by my dad Tony Stark. From the moment that I got into that house he was introducing me to various shows that he thought I would like my first one being Sesame Street. In the orphanage that I grew up in we didn’t have a television something that he thought was a sacrilege so he made it his goal to try to get me to watch movies and shows as possible that he thought I would love. The first show that I remember him showing me was the 2003 Ninja Turtles and with that show it was all over because I just knew that I had found a show to change my life. Since then there have been others like Teen Titans obviously because of my shirt, Spongebob Squarepants and Kim Possible. I was ten when I first met Rob, my best friend had invited all my favorite voice actors to come out to the old Nickelodeon Hotel that used to be up in Orlando for a few days. Most everyone was able to make it and I had brought my sketchbook with me at his persuasion. At the time the 2012 version of the show had just came out a few months before and had blown the show I grew up with out of the water giving it more personality that was like the comics. I’m a really avid drawer and artist and one of the first things that I designed ever was this original character to be a neurodivergent female ninja turtle since I have Aspergers. Rob found it and took it with him back home at his request promising that one day he would allow for me to become a voice actress myself. After that I was newly inspired to do acting with the community theater and the theater at my high school even though I was rapidly moving up the grades. I’ve been in way too many productions for me to keep track of and he came to all of them-” I was cut off by a screen coming down and an image of a fourteen year old me in my junior year of high school appeared on the screen. I was in my Evita dress so this must have been back when he went to the dress rehearsal for my show during that year. Somebody turned the volume on and me singing Don’t Cry For Me Argentina started to come out of the speakers as I ducked my head slightly humiliated by the fact that this was actually really happening to me. I should have known that Rob would try and embarrass me in front of everyone by trying to show them my talents. After what felt like an eternity my suffering ended and I looked up at all of them seeing sheer emotion in their eyes.    


“She’s not just an actress or a performer she’s one of the most talented people that I’ve ever met. I knew that when we started rebooting the show and I had actual power to sort of do what I wanted that I had to come through with my promise so I went to JJ telling him that I wanted to create a new turtle. At first he was skeptical but after I showed him that he was fully convinced that sunshine was talented. We made this turtle themed after a sea turtle since everyone has their own species her freckles were transformed into the spots that are on the turtle. We gave her these noise canceling headphones with lightning bolts down the sides that Donnie is going to invent for her at the end of the episodes after she has a sensory overload during one of the fights. Abby has always wanted for their to be an actual character on the spectrum for animation since as a kid it might help others understand how they actually think.” Rob finished explaining the backstory of my character and I looked at the other actors across the table from me.    


“Well I’m fully on board!! Welcome to the team, I’m Brandon I play Mikey.” I shook the actors hand flipping through my sketchbook and holding up my finger pulling out the sketch that I made for him.    


“This is for you, I have one for all of you if you want doubles for yourselves than I can easily do that or if you just want to keep them because I’m slowly but surely running out of space in my house and skating room. What I do is I have every voice actor that I meet sign a sketch or a drawing in ink that I made themed to their character. It’s something that I’ve always done since the get go once I started to meet all these amazing people.” I heard him let out the cheer that he did for Mikey in the show something that I loved he created for him because I thought it was adorable.    


“Sweet, which one is mine, I’m Omar by the way nice to meet you. Anyone ever tell you that you sing like an angel?” I blushed at the compliment and Rob only laughed at me poking my chubby cheek. 

“You’d be surprised how little she actually does it. Half the time I have to beg her in order to sing along in the car with me. She’s really shy about it but a lot of people in her life love it when she sings.” I smiled at my idol taking out the one for Omar that had Raphael trying to do sit ups and my character sitting on the back of his shell flipping through a book.    


“I love it, this is hilarious!! Guys come here and check this out!!” He showed the massive sized poster board that I made for him and I saw Ben let out this laugh when he read the captions.    


“That is genuinely funny, do you ever write just for fun? I’m Ben by the way it’s nice to see a fresh face amongst the industry.” He asked me and I smiled at him and took out his sketch of Dewey and Leonardo with their secret handshake and him showing Dewey how the sword worked.    


“I write for fun all the time usually it’s for whatever show I happen to be obsessed with. I dabble in a lot of things Dr. Who, Supernatural, Sherlock sometimes even since I love a good mystery. I’m mostly into cartoons though a live action show can keep my interest. This one is yours, I really love this one so I made two if you wanted to sign one copy and I have another for you to keep if you want it.” I told him and he just smiled at me taking the first one that I handed to him as Josh looked at me with bright eyes when I said Dr. Who.    


“You’re a Whovian?! That’s awesome!! Which Doctor is your favorite? Wait, let me take a wild guess and say that yours is Tennant.” I nodded my head excitedly at the way that he had gotten so excited about one of my favorite shows for the science and nerdy.    


“It totally is and this one is yours, I’m really proud of this one too so there’s a copy if you want it. One for you and one for me to put up in probably the skating room. I made a room dedicated to my skateboarding obsession for my ninth birthday that was crazy right there. There’s turns and spins, I was really into Phineas and Ferb at the time so that’s why I made it all myself. Still one of my favorite modern cartoons and wow I’m already babbling this is really embarrassing don’t mind me sometimes my words get away from me.” I blushed as Rob just put an arm around my shoulders comfortingly drawing small circles into my left side.    


“You’re doing great Abby, see they all really love their drawings and you’re talking to them right? Isn’t that a good thing? They already really like having you around and pretty soon you’ll be like one of the team. This is what I wanted for you because I knew that it would make you happy. That’s what’s most important here is your happiness.” He told me while everyone was signing their artwork to give back to me.    


“Can I see the other option? I want to see which one I pick to take with me and which one goes with you.” Ben asked me and the second one was the one that I was absolutely enamored with. It had my OC, Lizzy they were apparently calling her using her stun gun for the first time and Leo telling her that it truly fit her electrifying personality causing her to giggle because if she was anything like me she was a sucker for puns and that’s why in this series I loved what Ben was doing with the character. 

“There you go, if I had it my way you would take the one with Dewey and this one would be mine but I can go either way. I just put a lot of thought into the second one.” I saw the smile that practically lit up his entire face when he laughed at the pun that I gave to Leo.    


“Oh lord that’s so awful but so funny at the same time!! Are those going to be your weapons? I think that they would be amazing with the show and what angle you guys are going for.” He showed it to the rest of them and all of them groaned at the horrible pun but I saw the smile that was on Josh’s face when he looked at the sketch I made.    


“This is really amazing, you truly have a gift for art, can I see my other one too?” I showed it to him and he put them together trying to figure out which one he wanted while Brandon slid his across the table and back to me. 

_ Abby,  _ _   
_ _ I think that you are a really sweet girl and I love your bright smile!! You will make an incredible addition to our small family. I am of the firm belief that you will amaze kids everywhere with this character from the way that you explained her. We need more kids that are on the spectrum in modern media that actually do their homework.  _ _   
_ _ Your friend,  _ _   
_ _ Brandon Michael Smith.  _ I dried the tears that were festering in my eyelids knowing that this whole experience would probably change my entire perspective on life. Omar gave me the drawing back sketching the little red anger anime style emoticon above his head.    


_ Abby,  _

_ You were not what I was expecting this surprise to be I’ll be entirely honest that this is the most pleasant shock I have ever been given. You seem like such a genuine and down to earth person perfect for this character. I’m amazed that you are so able to be free and be yourself with us even though you haven’t even been here an hour yet. Here’s to working with you for a long while in the future on this crazy, funny, insane, and yet at the same time heartwarming show.  _ _   
_ _ The angry turtle,  _ _   
_ _ Omar Miller.  _ The tears in my eyes were back just a second later when I got the poster back from Ben and it was the one that I wanted. He rolled up the other one with a smile on his face.    


“You’re sure that’s the one that you want? If you wanted this one you could’ve taken it.” I asked him and he nodded his head pointing downwards and I looked at the note that was there.    


_ Abby,  _ _   
_ _ When I first heard that we were getting a character on the spectrum about a week ago I made a big spiel on my Twitter account about how important it was that her actress bring her to life in the best way. There needs to be so much better representation for people that are on the Autism spectrum other than just Sesame Street. Abby, I’m so glad that they decided to go with its original creator instead of just casting some big name that would have made her less human. You are Lizzy in real life and I can’t wait for you to get to meet fans that will love this character at cons and give the same panels as we do.  _ _   
_ _ Here’s hoping we could be good friends like you and Rob one day,  _ _   
_

_ Ben Schwartz.  _ I started to cry openly now and gave up trying to act all strong and tough around my new friends that I had made.    


“ Y-you all have no idea what this means to me, that you all accept me so quickly. This has been my dream since I was a little girl to be able to accomplish being a voice actress even though I still have to audition for the role. All of you have been so nice to me so just thank you for the support it means the world to me.” I dried my eyes taking off my glasses as Josh moved his drawing down the line that had my character along with Donnie practicing with their technologically advanced weapons.    
_ Abby,  _

_ I might not know a lot about the spectrum in itself but after Rob told me that there would be a character on that level of thinking I did all the research that I could about doing it accurately and not like my other show Big Bang Theory since a lot of the fans complained about that. I wanted to be prepared for everything that had to do with Donatello so when they said that this might become a thing I was excited for another neurodiverse character if done right. Lizzy is Donnie’s best friend and they have to have that bond in order to work off of each other. That means he has to oversee all her needs to make sure that during battles she doesn’t get overwhelmed or start to panic. I admire a lot about Lizzy like her kindness, her consideration towards others, her will to always help anybody that she can see needs it, and her creative sense of humor. I can see when I look at you that you share a lot of those qualities. Your intelligence rivals that of the turtle that we grew up with just in a different way. I know that you will do great things in bringing this character to the small screen and she will become a hit. You better look out because you’ll start going to cons as a guest before you know it.  _ _   
_ _ The “best turtle”,  _

_ Josh Brener.  _ I smiled at my new friends feeling like for the first time ever my dream was one step closer to becoming a reality instead of just something that I clung to like a five year old. 

“Can I look at these Abby while you all start the read through?” Rob asked me and I gave them all to him as I opened my script looking at all the lines that I had highlighted in bright pink marker. 

“Is that actually your favorite color or was it just the first thing that you thought of?” Omar asked me and I smiled at my new friend pushing a lock of hair back into my ponytail.    


“My favorite color is a tie between light blue and magenta. Since obviously I couldn’t be a light blue when I was a little girl I made my color instead a hot pink. I didn’t want her to be too girly and I know that pink is seen as a girly color but hopefully I can make her more than just some girly girl obsessed with her color.” I read the first set of lines that I had which seemed to take place in the past and I felt tears come to my eyes yet again. My character used to be a normal girl who had a genius father who was abducted when she was a little girl and she was with him. She became a mutant the same way that the turtles did in the 2012 version through the syrup injected into her. They were planning on having her becoming something cute like a squirrel or a cat. But, when instead she turned into a sea turtle her favorite type of animal she was cast out and put into her a cage until she eventually broke out and somehow found her way back to New York. This episode would be the longest as it would seem it would be a one hour special for the start of the new season. The turtles then found her after the events of the last episode of the season and spend that episode fighting crime together and learning about the way Lizzy reacted to certain situations.    


“What do you think? Are you ready to audition for the role and then we’ll do the read through?” I nodded my head excitedly as Rob offered me a hand up and I grabbed all my drawings putting them into my sketchbook and the book went into my backpack.    


“Yeah, let’s do this I’m a little bit nervous but I’m mostly excited about what is going to happen.” I knew that in my heart these guys had done a great job with their researching my social disease as Josh caught up with me.    


“You’ll be great in there Abby, I have full faith in you that this character will become a huge hit within this next month. We all watch the episodes together whenever they come out, it’s kind of a tradition that Ben started and the this one is going to be at his place. They’re usually really fun and a great team building time for everyone. The only person who isn’t here is Kat and she’ll be here in a little bit so you can meet her then. She’s running behind schedule just a fair warning this happens pretty often so we’re all used to it.” He joked and I found myself laughing at the thought as I saw the woman in question coming up the hallway.    


“ I happened to hear that, who are you honey?” She asked me and I smiled brightly at her.    


“Abigail Stark ma’am it’s lovely to meet you, I’m auditioning for Lizzy.” Her eyes widened and she looked at me with a raised eyebrow following me and Rob.    


“What does a Stark want to do with animation? Don’t you have an entire empire to take over one day?” She asked me and Josh looked like he was wondering the same thing as everyone held the elevator.    


“Well that’s kind of a long story but I’ll tell it anyways and give you the shorter version. As I said back in the conference room I was raised in an orphanage where I didn’t have television. One of the first shows that I wound up watching was the 2003 Ninja Turtles and from that moment on I’ve wanted to be a voice actress. My dad knows about this and he’s never pushed me into taking over the business. He only wants for me to be happy and I’ve found two kids who would be much better there than I ever would be in my entire life. While I love building and making technology I feel like if that were my job I would slowly come to hate it. I’ve been a big hearted dreamer since I was a little girl and this has been my one main thing that I’ve been working towards since I started acting in community theater and high school. You missed the really embarrassing video of me in Evita singing Don’t Cry For Me Argentina but other than that, that’s why a Stark would be interested in voice acting.” I told her and she only looked at me with a small smile on her face.    


“You’re going to be perfect for Lizzy, it’s nice to have another girl here to talk to. How old are you sweetie?” I took out my sketchbook again and handed her the sketch that I made for her.    


“I will be eighteen at the end of this month, my birthday is on the 26th of February.” I told her and she hummed in acknowledgement as she looked at her drawing in awe.    


“Girl you are really talented with a pencil and paper!! This is amazing, JJ has a difficult time drawing as good as this.” I saw the assistant director gasp in mock horror.    


“Wow, it’s lovely to know that there is somebody on my side of these arguments Kat. I know she’s good and all but that was just insulting to me and I’m astounded that you would say such a thing.” JJ ranted faking being appalled as he moved so that he could look at the drawing.

“She is really good, you’ve got to see some of the ones that she made for all of us. Which one did you keep Josh?” Ben asked his friend who only smirked at me with a small laugh.    


“It was one where the tech-bo was malfunctioning and she comes up to him and asks him if he needs a little help with that shooting it down so that he can adjust it. The look of sheer death that he gave her was too priceless. It’s just the typical best friend look when they make fun of you at the absolute wrong time.” I laughed because that was one of my all time favorite sketches in general.    


“I’ll make more for all of you to keep I just wanted to get more signed ones because I’ll be honest some of them need to go. I feel like my Danny Phantom phase is over, I might give that to Elliot as a joke.” I laughed to myself at the fact that Elliot would probably hate me for giving that to him since now he knows what a total tool Butch Hartman really is.    


“Who is Elliot? Is he your boyfriend?” Brandon asked me in a singsong voice that caused me to start to blush bright pink.    


“One of them yeah, I’m poly and I have two boyfriends one of them is my best friend Jeremy and the other is Elliot. He loves Danny Phantom that much will be obvious when you meet him downstairs they all came with me so that they could see the studios. This place is amazing by the way Rob I feel like I’ve walked in on my childhood fantasies with all the chalk art on the walls.” The elevator dinged at the bottom and I saw the booth with the headset over the top of it.    


“There are five booths now because some of us work in the same room. I used to work with Kat but that will probably get replaced by you since we have way more scenes together. It’s going to be great having another turtle here especially a female turtle.” Josh instructed and I found myself nodding my head and looking around for my friends and my boyfriends who at that moment came walking down the hallway.    


“As you can all see this is where we record voices for our characters, usually we do it solo but it really depends on the person working at the time. Greg do you ever work with any of your fellow actors?” Tom asked my older brother figure who was back talking with Elliot about skating tips and looked up when his name was called.    


“Actually yeah, most of the time with Go I work with Terra actually to get that chemistry going. I have worked with others during the older show though, oh hey there’s Abby!!” He called out and I waved to my group of friends and they all came over to talk with me.    


“Hey guys, how’s the tour going? I just went through my first kind of introduction meeting where I briefly read about what they’re doing with my character. I’m about to do my audition.” I told them pushing a lock of hair behind my ear as I nervously fiddled with the hem of my sweatshirt.    


“ We’re only just starting it because we wanted to wait for you to get the full tour underway. I’m sure that you’ll do great at your audition Abby, we know that you have the talent to pull off whatever you want to do.” Doug told me confidently and it was nice to have one person consistently believe in me even when I had my doubts about something.    


“We all know that you’re going to get the role Abby, and then a month from now we’ll be kicking it at my place and watching the hour long special unless you’ve got a better idea.” Ben told me confidently as I thought about it for a moment before nodding my head.    


“Well the mansion hasn’t had much racket going on there lately and it probably won’t for a while coming. You’re all welcomed to come there. I’d probably feel more comfortable there to be honest with you. I’m already nervous enough about this as it is.” Jeremy only hugged me tightly kissing my forehead nose than mouth gently.    


“You’re going to amaze a lot of people once you get into that booth love. I can’t wait to see what happens with this role and if you get her and see an actual toy of your character.” Elliot got a kiss and hug next and he just hugged me back gently carding his fingers through my hair.    


“You’ll be great in there baby, I just have this feeling in my gut that you were born to be an actress.” I hugged all my other friends saving Rob for last because I knew that he would be the best voice couch possible for me.    


“You need to put a little bit of the faith that we all have in you into yourself. You will amaze a lot of people with that gift that you have to put yourself into a certain situation. You become whatever character you happen to be acting as on the stage and while voice acting is just your mouth and head thinking about the character and visualizing where you are in the scene. That’s what I’m there for okay? So whatever doesn’t make sense to you or whenever there’s an action scene and you need to know exactly what grunts and sound effects to make that’s why I’m there.” I smiled at just how supportive my friends and boyfriends could be as I adjusted my sweatshirt on my shoulders.    


“Alright, I can do this, I can do this, I can do this. I’ve been waiting most of my life for this moment.” I opened the door to the booth and put the headphones over my ears as all my friends crowded in the space in the booth across from me.    


_ “Alright Abby can you hear me through your headphones?”  _ Kevin asked me and I just nodded my head with a small nervous hesitant smile.    


“Yes I can hear you perfectly clearly…” I told him just trying to suck in enough air to not have a sensory overload right here on the spot.    


_ “Great!! This audition will be simple and easy okay? We just need you to read the monologue that will be the first five minutes of the special.”  _ Peter told me and I nodded my head flipping the pages to where I had to be at the front of the special titled ‘A Special Friend’.    


“ Hi, I’m Lizzy and yes you are looking at me correctly there is nothing wrong with your eyesight I am a sea turtle. Well I wasn’t always a sea turtle and I didn’t always have such an amazing family of friends to confide in. When I was born I was your normal average daughter of a multi-billionaire that you saw on the streets. I was born with this social disease called Aspergers and that makes me think in a different way than most people probably would. It makes it harder for people to understand me fully and what I’m thinking. I’m frightened of lots of things thunder, losing my father, loud noises, the small amount of friends that I had forgetting about me the list goes on. For the first eleven years of my life I spent it with my father and he taught me everything he knew about creating technology. People call him a genius now that he’s gone but when he was alive a lot of people I think were afraid of him because of how smart and intellectual he was. A lot of people figured that he would be cold towards me since he worked so much but in fact the opposite was true. He showed me how everything was eventually being okay and that having anxiety only made me more cautious of everything. When he had to give a speech in a different country and in a harsher environment I offered to go with him instantly because I didn’t want to lose him. It seemed that for the moment it had all gone alright, they accepted his new form of weapon and we were in a buggie going home. I hadn’t been more wrong in my entire life. We were ambushed by a set of terrorists who wanted for me and my father to build a new form of weapon for them. When my dad said no they killed him right in front of me and put me under the experiments to become any type of animal I thought of. I don’t know what they were expecting but I can assure it wasn’t a sea turtle. I had always been envious of them because of the way that they were so beautiful in the water. Once I was done transforming and saw that I looked the way that I did I ran away from there and somehow found my way on a boat that would take me back to where I grew up in New York City. I made a promise to myself in that moment that I would always fight for people who couldn’t fight for themselves since I didn’t want anybody to feel as weak as I did that day.” As I read the monologue that gave my characters backstory I couldn’t help but smile brightly as I looked up at the people in the booth who just looked at each other stunned before turning back to me.    


_ “I don’t think either of us were expecting that to come out of you. Let’s try one with you and Josh and see how you two work off of each other okay?”  _ I nodded my head as the other actor came into the room with a bright smile on his face.    


“You’re a natural at this, I say that we do the final scene where he gives her the headphones.” He told me and I nodded my head excitedly. I couldn’t wait to see how they had written this scene since it would mean a lot to me. 

“Yeah that sounds amazing, I’m really excited now that I got that out of the way. That was really anxiety inducing right there let me tell you.” I laughed to myself and moved a piece of hair behind my ear.    


_ “Alright so during this scene we open after a night where Lizzy has a sensory overload during the action scene the night before when the foot faced clan caused a massive explosion. So the next day she’s moping around and doesn’t want to leave her room.” _ Rob explained to us and I smiled at my close friend and he gave me a thumbs up as I thumbed to the page where the last scene was. Josh made the knocking sound from his mouth and I found myself smiling even though during the scene I was supposed to be distressed.    


“Leave me alone whoever it is, I’m already humiliated enough.” I said dejectedly but it looked like Donnie came into the room anyways.    


“If you’re too sad to talk to me than I will be highly offended and very surprised.” I rolled my eyes as my character did in the script.    


“What do you want Donnie? Are you here to try and tell me it wasn’t my fault too too? Everyone else already has tried to talk to me but I turned them all away.” I replied to him and his eyebrows drew closer together.    


“Maybe I just want to talk to you about what happened last night from your perspective.” I sighed deeply and looked at the actor next to me trying to communicate how I was feeling.    


“If you really want my perspective all you have to know is that I’m terrified of loud noises. I know that like I’m not afraid of anything D and most of the time I’m not. I say that I have three greatest fears, my father dying which already happened, my friends leaving me which is you guys now which could very well happen and thunder\loud noises which is what happened last night. I got a sensory overload, the first one that I’ve ever had in a fight. It’s embarrassing I know, I’m supposed to be this kick butt girl who takes no for an answer but in truth I’m terrified of something so simple.” I felt tears come to my eyes when I read what happened next in the script.    


“Hey, hey, hey everyone gets like that Liz. It happens to the best of us, I’m afraid of failure, Raph’s afraid of cockroaches, Leo hates snakes and Mikey hates spiders. Everyone is afraid of something but it takes a truly brave person to admit when they are scared.” He told me and I smiled through the tears in my eyes and saw that my boyfriends were looking at me with this look of love.    


“I’m really not that great Donnie, I got a sensory overload during a fight. That only happens to the people like me the people that shouldn’t even fight  to begin with.” That’s when I started to read a little bit ahead just to see where we were going with this.    


“I believe that I have just the thing to fix your little problem. But you have to do me one little favor.” I raised my eyebrow at the actor next to me trying to convey my characters confusion.    


“And what is that?” I shot back at him and Rob only looked at me with this look of pride that this was going so well.    


“You have to close your eyes and no peeking because that will spoil the surprise. I know I know you hate surprises but I promise you that this one has been in my head for a long while but been in the unbetaed pile until just now when it was finally completed.” I rolled my eyes at my best friend but did what he told me to anyways as he led me by the hands through the sewer home where we lived. It seemed that in the script we accidently bump into every other thing.    


“And here I thought that I could trust you D. The next thing that we run into that ruins my perfect spots, I’m taking out of your salary.” I teased and I  heard slight laughter coming from the booth at the sarcastic drawl that I was giving to my character.    


“You don’t even pay me, and trust me the pay for being your best friend wouldn’t even be worth that amount of money.” I scoffed at him putting my hands on my hips trying to emote as much expression from my character as humanly possible.    


“ I don’t believe the level of sass coming from you, I’ll just have to find myself a new best friend.” I teased and Donnie in the show finally uncovered my  eyes as he set me down on the couch in front of me.    


“Alright lady, I hereby give you my newest creation the latest, greatest and only pair ever been created T-headphones that will cancel out any sort of sound!!” He pulled the string and my character saw a pair of bright pink headphones with a lightning slash through the middle to give off my characters love of electricity.

“Ta-stinking-da.” I laughed at since they had reused one of my favorite quotes from when he created the turtle tank that I had stolen for personal purposes.    


“These are amazing Donnie, you didn’t have to make me anything.” I looked at the headphones with tears in my eyes trying to communicate what my character must have been feeling right at that moment.    


“I did too have to, I wanted to give you something that would actually help you. I’ve tried to make things for my brothers but it didn’t work out that well. These should actually work out greatly but what do you say we change the channel on my dad and see what happens.” He suggested and my character gave him a kiss on the cheek and I laughed.    


“Alright but if he asks who did it I’m putting the blame on you of course since you were the one that gave me the idea in the first place.” I teased and closed the script since that was the last line in the shows special. Kevin and Peter spoke to each other for a moment with smiles and nods on both of their faces.    


_ “Abby? The audition was a…… Success!! You’ve got the part and I know that if you do what you just did that girls and boys of all ages will love both this softer side of Donnie and this character.”  _ Peter told me and I had tears in my eyes at the fact that this was actually happening when everyone cheered for me.    


“Thank you, thank you all so so much. I feel like I don’t deserve the amount of luck that I have been given over this course and I promise that I will try my hardest to not let anybody down.” I promised both myself and the people in the booth knowing that I had this in the bag and it was wrapped up on my birthday pretty much. I couldn’t wait until I did more recording and spent more time with my fellow voice actors goofing around and just having a great time with them.    


_ “So the next step will probably be you coming back here in about a week to do the introduction video to tell everyone that you will be playing this character. We will need you contact information if anything changes during that time but right now we are looking at next Thursday does that work with your schedule? We can record lines for the first time after that with Josh of course.”  _ Kevin asked me writing all of this down in what seemed to be a small calendar.    


“Yes it does, thank heavens you didn’t say tomorrow otherwise I would have had to say no. I’m going to be on Sesame Street Sunday morning and we’re filming that the day after tomorrow. Then I’m going to Jersey but I should be back to work by then.” I told them as Doug smiled happily at me giving the double thumbs up at the fact that I had gotten the role.    


“What are you going to do in Jersey?” Josh asked me slipping the headphones around his neck and off his ears.    


“Well it’s something that Doug had planned since he wants to get me out of my mansion as much as possible. It’s not really the best place for me to be at the moment with my dad’s partner in business breathing down my neck. He’s probably not going to be happy about this, he’s already angry with me for agreeing to do the Sesame Street episode with them but to be honest I couldn’t care less. We’re going to the mall of America and doing the Nickelodeon theme park. I’m rather excited since it will get me out of California for a while and I could probably use that with everything going on in my life right now. Not all of it’s bad though I mean I have my first official voice acting role for a character that I got to create.” I laughed to myself and Rob just smiled proudly at me nearly beaming.    


_ “I’m so proud of you sunshine!! I knew that you had it in you and that you would be great at this line of work. I can’t wait for you to get your first con invite. You’re all doing the one in San Diego again right? Abby you’ll get to go to one of the biggest cons of the year. Maybe even get to have your own panel.”  _ Rob informed me and I only smiled at my old friend pushing my glasses up my face.    


“Now let’s not get ahead of ourselves here Rob please, I only just got the role. We don’t know if people are really going to like her or like me in the role.” I reminded him slipping off my headphones as somehow Brandon got his point of view across.    


“Well if they don’t then there must be something very wrong with them. I loved it and thought that you were amazing.” I smiled kindly at my new friend brushing the hair out of my eyes as Jeremy hugged me tightly spinning me around.    
“You were so amazing my love!! I’m so proud of you for doing this and can’t wait until the episode actually comes out next month.” I hugged my boyfriend back as he kissed my cheek and I got a hug from Elliot and a group hug from Tom, Doug and Rob. 

“You actually pulled it off Abby Cadabby, I knew that you could do it if you just believed in yourself. I see that you took a page from the same method that he uses putting yourself into each situation which is the best way to invoke the most emotion for your character. It’s one that I have the most trouble with because I’m not nearly as imaginative as the two of you can be.” Tom sung my praises and I couldn’t help but smile at my old friend.    


“It does take a large imagination to do my method but it also pulls off in the end if you do it. I have to do it that way though or otherwise Plankton wouldn’t be nearly as funny as he is with his exaggerated screams and sarcastic comments.” I laughed at my best friend that I had bonded with for many years and really helped me find myself. Greg seemed to be texting somebody on his phone before putting that in his pocket and giving me the next hug.    


“I was just texting the twins, they love their new Starkphone by the way and are still thanking you for them. I was telling them how their older sister just got her first voice acting role.” I laughed at him as I smiled at the fact that the twins were still loving their phones that I designed for them so that we could all communicate together about different ideas in our group chat. 

“About that, since I got the role am I allowed to tweet about it? Or do I have to wait until the video gets uploaded?” I asked Kevin, Peter and JJ as they came out of the booth.    
“I recommend that you wait if you can to try and surprise them. Your twitter is amazing by the way, I was expecting it to just be about technology and  stuff to my surprise when JJ showed me it’s actually about art and cartoons mostly.” I nodded my head agreeing silently with Kevin’s statement.    


“The only problem with that is that Abby has a little problem with keeping secrets from people and it will eventually all come out in word vomit.” I shoved Jeremy to the side gently as all my new friends came out of the same booth where I had been doing me scenes.    


“You were amazing Abby!! I can’t wait to start working with you even if it will be rare probably that I will see you in person. We all come here at the same time so that we can work off of each other it’s probably why we’re all such good friends. It’s why I love this business so much because it’s about friends and making new family members that will change your life.” Ben gave me a small hug and I grinned at my new friend giving a double fist bump to Omar.    


“Color me impressed kiddo that was really something special that you just did for us in there. I really loved your interactions with Josh looks like we have another unstoppable duo.” I heard my phone buzz knowing that was probably either Pepper or one of the twins.    


“I certainly hope so, it was much easier for me to actually work off of somebody else in the same booth. I’ve always been that way, nervous on my own but put me with somebody else that I feel a friendship connection with and it becomes this thing that amazes people.” I smiled at the fact that I was surrounded by all these different voice actors.    


“I’m insanely excited to actually start recording lines with you. You’re really talented at what you do and it’s clear that you have a lot of passion for the art form. People like you are a rarity. It’s rare that people can be this genuine and open while still being able to put themselves into situations.” Josh told me and I jerked a thumb at one of my oldest friends.    


“I’m blessed to have all these voice actors to give me tips and one of the ones that Doug gave me in the early days when I first met him was if possible put yourself in every situation that your character goes through. It might seem a little bit crazy and looney but for him it really works since he imagines that he is really getting hurt by Mr. Krabs as Plankton. It actually really works and I’m stealing that idea I hope you don’t mind.” Doug just ruffled my hair and I tried to bat his hands away but ended up failing at it.    


“Of course I don’t mind you stealing that, it’s more of a method for acting than anything else.” I laughed at him and pulled my attention back to the new voice actors that I would be working with.    


“So your favorite Duck is Dewey?” I shook my head at Ben’s question as we all started to move back to the elevators.    


“No actually it’s Hewey but Dewey is really close, the only reason why I hold Hewey in a slightly larger love regard is because I relate to that a lot more. The planner who tries to plan for every possible situation is me a tee. All my friends make fun of me for it whenever we go on trips and I try to find out everything that I can about that specific place.” My friends all laughed at me as I tried to fix the hair that Doug had made stick up at odd angles.    


“But your favorite Ninja Turtle is Donnie right? You have to love Donnie I mean you’re the daughter of Anthony Stark.” Kat asked me and I nodded my head at her with a soft smile.    


“I mean of course I adore Donnie and he inspired me a lot as a young girl who was the daughter of a technological genius who passed that down to me. I love his sense of humor in both what you’re doing Josh and what Rob did in the 2012 version. But I also have a big soft spot for Michaelangelo and that’s pretty much always been there specifically the one that Greg had because I looked at that voice and had a that’s Beast Boy moment.” I got out my sketchbook and gave the sketches to both Greg who was on my left side and Doug who was walking in front of me.    


“So that you finally get off my back after all these years sorry it took so long it took me forever to figure out exactly what to do with the ideas that I had. I mean it’s Plankton the options are kind of limitless. He lost the original sketch that I made for him in the airport somehow so he’s been bugging me for the last seven years to make him another one.” I fiddled with the ends of my sweatshirt when I saw Stephen coming down the hallway.    


“I’m so sorry I missed the last small part of the audition, I got a call from my doctor. You were really amazing Abby, I’m so proud of you!!” He told me and I could tell that he was trying to cover up the feelings and emotions that he was feeling at the moment.    


“What did he say? I know that it’s probably not good so just rip it off like a bandaid.” I demanded him and he just sighed while the others moved forward as I looked up at Jeremy who looked as though he wanted to wait for me but Tom was pushing them forward. All my friends continued on the tour while I stayed behind for a moment wanting to talk to my old icon of creating cartoons.    


“It’s not looking that grand for me Abigail, I’m on my last legs here and there’s nothing that I can do. I’ve hardly even lived half of my life but it’s already just about over. I can’t look at this in regret though, I mean I knew you and you changed everything about how I thought about my life. I went to that hotel not knowing what to expect of the daughter of Tony Stark but thinking that she would just be some self entitled brat who wanted to meet somebody actually famous instead of us animation workers. To my surprise the exact opposite happened and you are anything but spoiled rotten. You are the most giving and kind hearted person that I have ever met in my entire life. I’m not going to last the year most likely, I give myself until the end of November before it’s over for me. I’ve lived a happy life. I got to make children’s lives better through the magic of an exuberant yellow sponge who taught kids to save our marine life and to make their days a little brighter with the element of imagination.” Stephen was always honest with me and I sighed deeply knowing that would be the conversation that would have happened.    


“I can’t believe this, you’re still so young Stephen. You helped form me into this person that you see before you. I wouldn’t be me without your profound influence on my life. You showed me to treat this world with this element of kindness and respect that changed the way that I think about my own life. I had never really related to a character until Spongebob Squarepants got on my radar and I saw his bright smile and his optimistic attitude. He shows me still to this day that everything will be okay as long as you look on the bright side of every single situation. Are you going to leave now?” I asked him and he gave me another hug tightly as I only clung to him right back.    


“I know that this is hard for you to think about and really bad timing as everything in your life has recently turned on its head again. You were my favorite fan ever since I first saw you start to tear up when you saw me sitting with Doug, Tom, Caroline and myself. It looked like to a little girl that all her dreams were coming true and that just meant the world to me. Spongebob will always remain the adorable sponge that will teach kids with a happy smile and a goofy sense of humor showing kids everywhere that there is nothing wrong with being a Goofy Goober. I think I should probably take my leave right now though, your friends should surround themselves with you. I’ll be at your birthday party though I can promise you that.” He told me as he pulled back from the hug and he left the room without another word. I followed the sound of voices that led me to the same room with just more people that I saw earlier and it took me five seconds after sitting down next to Jeremy and Elliot before I started to flatout bawl my eyes out. 

“H-He’s not going to last the y-year. I-I don’t want to lose him guys.” I started to cry even harder and Jeremy only lifted me into his lap trying to calm me down. Tom looked pained and like he wanted to do something that would make me feel better as he got on my level lifting up my chin.    


“Don’t cry Abby, just do what I always say sometimes the little things starts closing in on me. When I’m feeling down I wanna lose that frown I stick my head out the window and I look around.” He dried the tears that were in my eyes before carefully lifting me into his arms for a tight hug as I clung to the voice actor that changed my life.    


“Shush, it’s all going to be okay, I know it’s hard right now especially for you but Stephen knew that this was his fate when he went to the doctor last year. I know you don’t have a lot of experience with death but you have to keep an optimistic attitude. Josh you know what she needs? Some ice cream always makes her feel better doesn’t it?” He asked me and I nodded my head knowing that the frozen sugary treat would instantly make me feel much better.    


“ I’m on it, I’ll be right back. Anybody want anything else?” He asked the rest of the gang that was hanging out here as they all looked at me without knowing how to handle this situation except for Doug who got the next tight hug.    


“I know you’re really close with Stephen, most of us in this room are and it’s going to be hard saying goodbye to someone who’s only lived half his life. It hurts and that hurt won’t go away since you two were so close and he thought of you as his granddaughter.” Doug comforted and it looked like Rob was next on the list as he hugged me tightly.    


“It’s alright sunshine, I’m so sorry that this is hurting you so badly and that there’s not much I can do to make you feel better. I can’t lie to you and tell you that Stephen will be okay because he won’t be. He is going to die and there’s nothing that any of us can do to stop him from doing so.” Brandon looked at me with this element of kindness and that he wanted to do something to make everything better but didn’t know how.    


“I’m truly sorry that this is how you’re meeting me guys, I feel like such a big cry baby. One of the people that was at my tenth birthday was the creator of Spongebob Squarepants Stephen Hillenburg. He changed my life through that bright yellow sponge and taught me to love people and treat them with genuine kindness while still being optimistic that everything will turn out okay. He told me that he had ALS before he went public with it inviting me over to his house and just sitting me down explaining that he was sick and he didn’t know if he could fight it. I’m a naturally emotional person and usually I’ll either bate it off with a joke and go cry alone in my room like I did when Rob got throat cancer three years ago or I’ll just start bawling my eyes out like I just did. I don’t have a lot of people that are close to me for reasons that I’m really quiet most of the time unless I can talk about animation.” The only reason as to why I stopped crying was because Belle had climbed into my lap knowing that was what I needed as I sat on the floor next to Greg who rested his head on my shoulder.    


“It’s sad when a person or thing that you’re close to fades away into nothingness especially if you have to watch it happen. You’ve probably watched him get steadily weaker and that’s the worst thing about this. We don’t know him that well because he’s hardly ever here anymore because he’s too sick to get out of bed most days. Everyone talks about what a loving and giving person he is though and I can’t lie and say that I don’t know what you’re going through. It’s awful seeing this person that you love more than anything slowly lose their strength.” Omar told me understandingly where I was coming from and I only smiled watery at them.    


“I feel awful for you Abby, he must be a really close person to you if he taught you that much. I used to love watching Spongebob as a little boy and other than Mikey I considered him the most relatable character in all of animation. I can see a lot of qualities that you have in him as well.” Brandon told me with a small smile and I just leaned back against the weight that Greg was putting up for me. Elliot and Jeremy looked like they wanted to help but didn’t know how or they just didn’t want to be a hindrance. I was glad because while I loved Jeremy and was quickly getting there with Elliot I wanted to lean on my voice acting family and Belle right now.    


“Honey are you okay? It seems that you’re covering up a lot of your pain and from what we just saw that it’s all coming out at one time right now.” Kat asked me worriedly about my health and I just sighed deeply.    


“Before today I was actually doing a lot better, I was visiting Venice Beach everyday to meditate and to center myself which Greg was helping me with. I’ve learned to ground myself in this headspace where I wasn’t thinking about anything except how comfortable I felt in that moment. I miss my dad and that hurts me a lot because I’m so used to hearing that incessant drilling coming from the basement. However Tom will tell you that I’m forever the optimist and I know that eventually he’ll come back home to me. The one thing that I can’t be optimistic about is the fact that my favorite creator of my childhood cartoon is slowly losing his strength and there is nothing I can do to possibly help him. When I first met him he was this icon in my eyes and I truly loved his storytelling, his sense of humor and his adorably nice nature. He created this quirky cartoon where I could watch a sponge interact with a squirrel, a starfish, a moody squid and a money obsessed crab. I wanted to be part of his world so badly that when he offered me a slot I almost said yes but didn’t want to taint something that to this day I still see as perfect.” I dried the tears that were in my eyes finally calming down as my boyfriends moved to the floor and kissed me gently.    


“I’m sorry for not being much help here baby, it’s just I don’t know what to say to make you feel better. I see you so sad and it kills me to not know how to help make it all go away.” I unzipped my backpack taking out my guitar that I had brought with me that somehow fit in there because it was the size of a ukulele but it was a guitar. 

“Just be there for her in any way that you can. Don’t worry about saying the wrong things. Sunshine takes things on a really personal level but I haven’t seen you say anything truly wrong to her before Elliot and even if you do she happens to be the most forgiving person that I have ever met.” Rob told my boyfriend sitting down on the floor next to him as I took my guitar out of its case.

“This was the gift that he gave me, it’s something that means so much to me now and it was part of Tom’s gift basket that he gave to me. He got this guitar and he hand painted it to like a scene from the underwater world that he created with the flowers, jellyfish and bright blue coloring.” I showed all of them the guitar that he had made from me and Ben who was sitting on one of the tilting chairs with Kat moved so he could get a better look at it.    


“It sounds like you two were really close to one another and that’s an amazing thing right there. That you know all these people and that they all love you in these different ways. Rob looks at you like his daughter, Tom like your his niece, Doug like his daughter so I guess that’s kind of similar and Greg like your his younger sister. I say that even though you’re probably going to lose him by the end of the year to be thankful that you knew his smile.” Ben advised me and I sighed deeply seeing Josh coming back with soft serve ice cream and sprinkles.    


“Alright it’s cake batter froyo it was the best I could do on such short notice. I hope that it still helps, oh that’s cool can I see it?” I nodded my head handing him my most prized possession as he looked at it with this sense of wonder.    


“This is really cool, he had this hand painted for you probably did it himself and it’s signed too. I think that even though he’s getting weaker and there’s that probability that he won’t last the year he’s lived a great life. He got to meet you and I’m sure that was the highlight of his life too. I realize that I probably shouldn’t even have an opinion but you seem to be a unique individual and those are a rarity like I mentioned earlier.” Josh told me handing the guitar back as I plucked a few of the strings.    


“He wants for me to speak at his funeral. I have no idea if I’m going to have the strength to do it though and to do what he wants for me to do to honor his memory. I’ll spend forever loving the little sponge for what he taught me. I spent most of my childhood at the orphanage knowing that I was much smarter than everyone around me but also had the imagination and heart of a child. I thought that it was the strangest combination until I started watching cartoons and the first one that I ever saw other than turtles was Spongebob. He wants me to play Ocean Man which as everybody knows was the ending credits song during the first movie. I loved that movie since it was one of the first times that I ever saw the villain almost win.” I took a spoonful of the frozen yogurt sighing at the fact that this was just what I needed.    


“We’ll all be there to support you when that does happen though even I believe that won’t be for a while yet.” Doug told me and I nodded my head while looking up at Tom who was just admiring the scene in front of him.    


“What do you say we continue this tour? I want to see more of the building before the end of the day.” I asked our tour guide who only smiled at me offering me a hand up off the ground.    


“Want to try some? It’s actually really good, thank you for this Josh it’s actually really helping.” I asked Elliot offering him my cup of soft serve and he took a spoonful trying it.    


“It’s not a problem really, I just wanted to help in anyway that I could. You looked so sad and I just wanted to make it all better. Does that sweatshirt have the mask on it?” He asked me and I nodding my head pulling up the hood on my sweatshirt that covered my eyes with white and had the purple mask.    


“I love it so much, it’s pretty much what got me through college. I graduated in early spring of this year and spent a majority of my summer remodeling my car.” I pulled my dog out of the isle and walked her slightly in front of me and she barked happily.    


“What degree did you go for in college?” Omar asked me catching up to the rest of us as he was behind me.    


“She got a doctorate in engineering and technology. Pretty much the smartest person that I’ve ever met in my entire life and I’ve never been prouder of her.” Jeremy told him kissing my cheek and licking my froyo stealing a sprinkle on the way and I saw strawberries and oreos towards the bottom of it as well.    


“Wow we’re in presence of a genius here gentlemen oh and lady.” I laughed at how Ben said that as mostly an afterthought and Kat just smacked his lower arm gently.    


“It’s not that big of a deal, I mean I’m just smart what will that do for a person in the actuality of things?” I asked my friends and they all looked at me and I turned down my hood.    


“Sunshine you are far more than just smart, there’s more to you than that. Yes your intelligence sometimes amazes even me and we’ve been close friends for around eight years. There’s nobody on this earth that I’ve ever met that is as kind as you can be towards others hell you’re building a homeless center where the people of this side of the sunshine state can learn and get an education. That alone is impressive but you’re doing amazing things even right now. Look at all these friends that you have around you, intelligence didn’t bring all of us here we’re here because we all love you in different ways and we want to make your life better. You’re stuck in a bit of a rut right now and I want to bring you out of it so that when Tony does come home you’ll still look like his little girl.” Rob moved the hair out of my eyes and pushed my glasses up my nose lovingly.    


“ He’s right Abby Cadabby, we want for you to learn how to make your own life better and here you are accomplishing your biggest dream when I met you. Remember, I asked you what you wanted out of life and you told me that you wanted to surround yourself with people that loved you for you and to be a voice actress. Well you can cross both of those off the list.” Tom reminded me of the image of a ten year old me telling him my dreams, goals and aspirations for my own life. 

“Abby I don’t think you realize just how special, unique and important you really are. To me you’re one of the quickest people that I’ve accepted as a friend and later girlfriend. All of that happened within the span of a week, I almost never do that with anybody. But, I saw how different and special that you were when you gave me all the merchandise that Rob gave you out of your request. How many girls do you know Jeremy that could look at all these people and smile at them?” He asked Jeremy stealing another spoonful out of my bowl as I smacked his hand gently.    


“I don’t know any other girl, what about you Ben?” He asked the voice actor who walked up next to Josh with his arm around his shoulders.    


“Well I don’t know any other girl that gets that little sparkle in her eyes whens he talks about animation or when she interacts with all of us. I also don’t know another person who can pull off Donatello sneakers better.” I laughed at him and Omar caught up with all us with a small smile on his face.    


“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a girl fangirl as much as you when you got the part. It was kinda sweet seeing a grown woman get misty eyed as she read through a script.” I smiled at all these people that I was surrounding myself with as I started to grow misty eyed again.    


“You’re a sweetheart hon and we’ll be with you through every step of the way. Won’t we Brandon? We have to make this experience the one of a lifetime since it’s rare that a show welcomes a new cast member midway through a show especially one as unique as her.” Kat told me with her hand on my shoulder and Brandon just cheered. He truly did fit the Michelangelo archetype that I had dreamed about since I was a little girl. We stopped by one of the biggest artist walls that was surrounded by chalk art and I took a piece of chalk drawing a Spongebob and Tom Kenny signed the bottom of it. 

“Much better than anything I could ever draw, she’s amazing at art.” Doug praised and much of the other voice actors just nodded their heads as I signed the bottom of it as well and made another one of my character made out of chalk drawing a Donatello next to her that took me almost twenty minutes.    


“And it’s done, my masterpiece!!” I joked signing the bottom of that one as Josh took a picture of it.    


“Here put your contact info in there that will be the icon that I use.” I smiled as I gave him my phone number into his phone and he into my Starkphone.    


“There we go, anybody else want it since we’re doing this now?” I joked raising my eyebrow as Ben stepped forward.    


“I’d actually love to have your number so we can shoot punny jokes back and forth. They hate them but it’s one of my favorite things about Leo’s character in this show.” I gave him my contact information with a small smile as he put his into my phone.    


“Did you ever invent anything for your father? I’m kinda obsessed with technology and science I’m just not very good at it.” I laughed at my friend and nodded my head gesturing to my cell phone.    


“The Starkphone was my idea to make a cellphone that was cheaper than all the rest so that more people could get them. I love that it just keeps on developing and getting better every redesign that they have me do.” Josh looked at me in surprise as did my other new friends who hadn’t been around me throughout my entire life.    


“Ok that wasn’t what I was expecting we all have Starkphone’s since that is the only ones that truly advance overtime. I was expecting you to say that you made yourself a doll house or something.” Josh joked and I laughed heartily at my friend pushing back a stray hair.    


“She gave two of the homeless twins a set of them that she designed for them. They love her more than anything it’s about the cutest thing.” Greg showed my friends the pictures that he took of me, Ethan and Steven.    


“Awwwww that’s just about the sweetest thing that I’ve ever seen I feel like I might be getting a cavity.” Ben said trying to look as though he was in sheer pain from how cute the images were.    


“What are their names? They look like absolute sweethearts!! I want to meet them so badly, wait did you say homeless?” Brandon stopped in his tracks and I nodded my head pushing a lock of hair behind my ear nervously.    


“Ethan and Steven Richardson identical twins and just about the sweetest kids known to mankind. I’m really close with them, I’m hoping that when my dad comes back he’ll adopt them as his own. They have really creative ideas and just need the resources to make them come true. I’m helping them learn how to surfboard right now and it’s a lot of fun being able to be close to someone. Their parents passed away in a car wreck on their way to pick them up from school by a drunk driver last year. They’ve been on Venice Beach ever since then. I want to give them a home more than anything and I’m sure that they would both love to meet you guys. They’re massive fans of animation and while they haven’t seen much of this incarnation they were really excited when I told them that I might be getting to be a part of it. Hopefully if my dad is back by my birthday I’ll be able to have a family party though I highly doubt it since it’s two weeks away. But you’re all invited it’s just going to be a small party with all my voice acting friends. You guys, all of them plus Stephen should be there if he can make it and did you ask DiMaggio?” I asked Rob and he nodded his head with a loving smile putting his arm around my shoulders.    


“Yes I did speak with him and he’ll be there too. He wants to make you one of the gift baskets too that we all gave you. All of us gave her these gift baskets full of merchandise for our characters. It’s where she got that shirt from Greg and there’s a bunch of other Beast Boy things that she has from him.” The man in question just shrugged and smiled at me.    


“I went massively overboard because I wanted to surprise her most of the merch for the old show went out in the dark ages sadly. Most of the items there I either painted myself like her skateboard by tracing an image of him or the shoes which I asked a friend to make. I always thought that the original was canceled because the merchandise was so cliche just action figures and I wanted something special in there for her to be surprised by.” He explained and Elliot just squeezed my hand kissing my cheek as I took the final spoonful of oreo, strawberry and frozen yogurt.    


“That’s awesome is that where you got the shoes? Those look handmade too they’re awesome!!” Omar asked me and I nodded my head pointing to Rob as he just smirked at all of them.    


“Most of my favorite stuff at the time came from him and he loves to brag about it. I got this kickass leather jacket that is themed to one of my other favorite cartoons Animaniacs, these sneakers and a pair of Yakko Warner ones, a set of coloring books themed to his various shows that I loved like the previously mentioned show, turtles and at the time Lilo And Stitch the series where he played Reuben, this sweatshirt and my favorite thing that was in there was an actual bo staff. I quickly learned how to do martial arts after that moving up the ranks until I got to blue belt before my studio went out of business.” I explained gesturing to the Donatello shoes on my feet with the small gap between his teeth.    


“You have that same gap between your teeth and it’s really cute. Is he your favorite version of that character?” Brandon asked me as I tongued the space that he happened to be talking about.    


“Well yes and no, it’s so hard for me to have a favorite Donatello it’s like asking them which version of Michelangelo they prefer. I’m in love with some of the things that Rob did like he gave him that sensitivity that I just love and his irritation seems way more prevalent back then. The only critique that I give him as a character is that sometimes his crush on April was really forced. I love him don’t get me wrong but that’s kind of why I love what you’re doing with him Josh. I love his sense of more dry sassy humor since I tease people a lot, the closer you are to me the more that you get in splash zone. He also has way more funny catch phrases that me and my dad use since the first episode came out last September. I love the ta-stinking-da me and my dad use that whenever we have a big thing that we’ve just invented before we show it to the other because we’re those nerds, how he calls Michelangelo Michael and I wish that the others had done that before, the battle shells, the fact that the first time he throws the tech-bo he yells the first made up word that comes to his which is something that I still quote to this day just to get the weird alien look fibonacci which I love because he’s a mathematician from the same era as the original painter, I love his shortening of words and that’s an obsession that I have when I stressed out and have a lot of thoughts running through my brain. I could probably be here all day talking about this character. I’m a natural babbler once you get me going on a subject.” My boyfriends just kissed my cheeks and I blushed bright pink.    


“It’s adorable and I love it when that happens, she usually apologizes for it though unless she’s close to you and she trusts you which is a good thing. She started babbling with us when she first met us so we’ve been close friends ever since.” Tom told us leading us all to the elevator. I liked this tour a bit better than the one at Warner Brothers because I could actually physically touch a lot of the things here while at the studio tour we had to keep our hands off a lot of the things.    


“Okay, what is your favorite live action Disney movie at the moment?” Brandon asked me as he stood next to me and I smiled brightly because I would sing this movie’s praises to the high heavens.    


“I really love the movie Mary Poppins Returns, it’s an amazing film full of heart that I loved in the original film so technically it’s a tie between both the original and that movie. I have the biggest Lin Manuel Miranda obsession known to mankind ever since I was in college and Hamilton basically stopped me from going totally insane in the membrane. I adore the characters here especially Jack even if he wasn’t played by Lin he still has this element of play that I totally related to as a little girl. His kindness and will to help the children John, Annabelle and Georgie was just the sweetest thing. I loved his romance with Jane, the music and dance sequences especially Trip A Little Light Fantastic during that scene I was holding my breath, the small cameos of two of my favorite Disney stars of the past in Angela Lansbury and Dick Van Dyke, seeing him tapdance on a table even if it was for a short amount of time I was still spellbound. It’s just a magical film full of fun and creative characters with a softer undertone of childhood and discovering what it’s like to be a child again.” I gushed about one of my favorite movies of all time and they all just listened to me which made me smile because I was so used to just talking to nothing since Katie often tuned me out even when I was genuinely excited about something.

“You know something? Not to be that guy but I could listen to you talk forever about something you’re passionate about. It’s just so adorable to hear you talk so much since your words are usually so formulated.” Ben told me and everyone just laughed at him.    


“I actually get that a lot from my boyfriends they always listen to whatever I have to say about anything and everything. Even to the point of asking more questions about the thing that I’m talking about. I love to chat about animation and Disney in particular but those are just two of my favorite things, I also could go on forever about science.” I smiled at my friends as the elevator reached the floor that Tom had pressed and I followed him around all the offices.    


“Let’s go bother JJ since he abandoned us what do you think?” Ben asked me and I nodded my head openly wanting to sit and draw with him for just a while.    


“Yes please, I want to sit and draw with him for a little while, I love to sketch probably more than anything. Other than my friends, science and music.” They all laughed at me as Jeremy squeezed my hand encouragingly and Elliot kissed my cheek.    


“I’m so glad that you’re excited about all of this sunshine. Why don’t you tell them about the turtle party you had when you turned twelve?” He offered and I nodded my head wanting to talk about one of my favorite birthday parties.    


“Okay so when I was twelve I wanted to have a TMNT themed birthday party and my dad went all out decorating the house so that it actually looked like the sewer where they grew up. I was of course Donatello and I had his bo staff, a purple tutu and a shirt that said I only understand science don’t talk to me about celebrities. My dad had it made for me and it had 2012 Donnie with his gap between his teeth and a atom symbol with the spirals around it. He had all these decorations balloons and everything. He invited all of the main actors that we met at the hotel and we skated in my skate room. Even though Rob just did the basics most of them kept it safe and just had a great time. It was one of my favorite birthdays because it was surrounded by my favorite people that just seem to keep growing.” I explained about one of my favorite birthdays that would probably be replaced by this birthday.    


“ I’m glad that you had so many fun birthdays with us though those will quickly be blown out of the water. Are you sure that we can do the party at your mansion to watch the special?” Omar asked me and I nodded my head passionately wanting them to all come over so that we could binge on snacks and video games.

“Oh yeah it would be great to have all of you at my house, we have a ton of video games that are a lot of fun so it could be great. I love having company where I live and I don’t usually have enough company over there. It’s so fun being able to spend time with the people since I’m usually such a hermit.” I twiddled my fingers and Elliot only held my hand as we looked at all the animators working passionately on projects in the open faced offices surrounded by chalk on the walls.    


“Hey Mackenzie!! Abby, this is going to be the animator for Lizzy.” Tom told me and I smiled at my old friend shaking the artist's hand. 

“Abigail Stark it’s a pleasure to meet you, I’m just starting to storyboard the scene between her and Donnie where he gives her the headphones. I’m really glad to be working on this show this is my first job out of college and having something as fun and creative as this is a dream come true.” The girl shook my hand excitedly and I smiled at her kindly.    


“I’m sure that you will do a great job, I’ve been told that I’m quite the artist myself not to brag or anything like that. I hope to get to talk to you at some point.” Tom led us around to see what all the different artists were working on and I was suddenly inspired by all these people combining to make one official product.    


“This is one of the most amazing things I think I’ve ever seen. All these people of different ethnics and backgrounds gathering together to create a show and a final product.” Elliot said wistfully as I saw the man that I wanted to talk to for a while longer because he just seemed so nice. Tom did the shave and a haircut hearing the responding hammering sound of his foot hitting the ground. 

“Hey JJ, it’s us Abby wants to keep you company for a while if you aren’t too busy.” Rob told him and his eyes just lit up as he patted the seat next to him where I pulled up a chair.    


“You’ve got to see the chalk art that she made downstairs J it’s amazing seriously. I’ve never seen it this good, she fullon drew your designs in chalk in fifteen minutes tops while we all sat around talking.” Josh pulled out his Starkphone to show the creator what I had drew downstairs as he just looked at it in awe.    


“That is incredible, even I find trouble drawing characters in chalk especially ones as detailed as this. It’s adorable to see you getting along with everyone.” He smiled at me and pushed my hair behind my ears as Brandon sprawled out on the floor.    


“She fits right in with the rest of us!! I’m literally so happy that Peter and Kevin decided that she would be the best bet for the happy go lucky usually girl with aspergers.” He praised and I smiled at my new friend as he handed me a large piece of paper.    


“I’d love to see what you drew on this, if it’s good I might hang it up with the rest of my artwork around here. It’s kind of a problem I’m running out of room.” I laughed at my new friend taking the pencil from the bin and sketched the original idea that I had and drew Raphael at the bottom holding everyone up. Leo was on one of his shoulders, Mikey on the other, Donatello balancing on his head upside down with Lizzy at the top listening to music with her headphones on. I put a little quote at the bottom  _ Family isn’t always blood. It’s the people in your life who want you in theirs and who accept you for who you are. The ones who would do anything to see you smile and who love you no matter what.  _ I took one of his ink and copics pens as Jeremy tried to see what I was doing and I just shoved him gently to one side.    


“You can’t see it Jere-bear, I’m almost done I just have to ink them and color in the masks.” I was careful to not smear the ink into the drawing as I inked in Raph’s details, then Leo’s, Mikey’s, Donnie’s and my own OC’s before coloring in their masks.    


“Ta-stinking-da!! It’s finished, I’m actually really proud of this it’s one of my favorite things that I’ve ever created.” I gave it to JJ as his eyes widened and he let out a loud bark of laughter.    


“That’s definitely going on the wall can I see everyone else’s?” He asked me and I got out my sketchbook handing him the piece of material that had been seeing a lot of daylight recently due to all the actors I had been meeting.    


“This is really heartfelt Abby that you made these for them even though you hardly know them at all.” JJ praised and I signed the bottom of it for the creator as he handed me one of the sketches that he made of my character signed at the bottom by him.    


“Excellent work JJ, I couldn’t have drawn her better myself she’s an incredibly strong woman. I can’t wait to get into that booth and change some lives through her shoes. I’m a little bit nervous about the on camera work but I think I can handle it next week. As long as Rob doesn’t do anything to make me laugh then we should be fine.” I turned to glare at my close friend as he just whistled while trying to look completely inconspicuous.    


“I don’t know what you’re talking about, I’m not planning anything at all. It’s not my fault that you are too serious eighty percent of the time. You need to relax sunshine and learn to not take things too literally.” I pointed to my head as JJ hung the drawing up with the rest of the his sketches and I put his into my book. 

“Hello, this is me your talking to Aspie brain that is used to functioning more literally than everybody else thinks. And I happen to be of the firm belief that you are really over exaggerating and I’m not serious eighty percent of the time.” I argued spinning around in the chair that I was sitting in as I looked around at all the workers that were putting their heart and soul into a character.

“You do seem pretty serious most of the time even if you’re happy about eighty five percent of the time. It wouldn’t kill you to relax and let your guard down sometimes Abby.” I looked over at Doug as if to ask who’s side he was on in this debate.    
“They’re not wrong Abby, you do always take things way too seriously even if you can tell that I’m joking. And I do admit that over text my cynicism and sarcastic nature can come across as literal that doesn’t excuse the fact that you look at me as if I’m being serious most of the time when I make jokes like that.” I flung my hands up in the air as in exasperation at the fact that even Jeremy, one of my boyfriends was telling me that I was too serious.    


“If I can have an opinion even though I haven’t known her nearly as long as most of the rest of you, I think the fact that she’s serious about most of the things that she says is just as compelling as the rest of her personality. It makes her different and even if it’s because that’s the way that her brain works it still makes me feel even more interested in her.” Omar made his opinion know through the room and I was just happy that it seemed like somebody was on my side. 

“Thank you Omar finally somebody in this room who doesn’t believe that most of the time I’m a stick in the mud.” I breathed a sigh of relief at the fact that somebody was on my side of this argument and that alone made me feel better.    


“That is not what I said you’re putting words in my mouth there sunshine as you often think that I’m saying something that I’m really not. Just because a person is naturally serious and more analytical doesn’t mean that they are a stick in the mud. You clearly are having the time of your life right now and I’m sorry that I’m bringing this up now but it needs to be said. It usually happens with sarcasm which is odd because you use it too but sometimes you will just look at one of us like we’ve grown a third head when we make a joke. It’s not a bad thing, and you’re getting way better with people. I’m proud of you for the amount of time that you spend with people and the fact that you’ve come so far.” Rob got down to sit on the floor so that he could keep eye contact with me during his whole speech.    


“I know and one of the reasons why I’m so much better at letting my hair down is because of you. You’re the one that taught me that sometimes having fun is just as important if not more important than burying your nose in a book all the time. Sure, it’s good to do it sometimes but once you start to do it all the time it gets really dull. I wouldn’t be able to be here right now without your profound influence on my life and I’m just so grateful for all of you. Even though half of you I don’t know as much as I would like someday I’ll get there. I’ve just been around most of these crazy heads throughout a majority of my childhood.” I teased and saw Rob make a goofy face at me causing me to giggle.    


“Most of us already see you as a family member, you’re practically my sister even though we’ve only known each other a short amount of time.” I looked down seeing Greg with Wingman and Belle.    


“ That means a lot to me, I mean if you would have told six year old me that I was best friends with most of you guys I would have probably pinched myself. Beast Boy means the world to me since he was pretty much me when I was a kid and as a vegetarian he taught me that it was okay to be different. I also found his sense of humor to be the funniest thing other than Spongebob. I blame that for the reason why I love anime so much now. Especially FullMetal Alchemist and My Hero Academia.” Jeremy sat down in the middle of my feet and I smiled down at him giving him an upside down kiss.    


“ I think that it’s amazing that you’re going to be on Sesame Street this weekend. I’ll have to watch it, that’s the first time in decades since I’ve felt the urge to watch that show.” I laughed at Josh as he smiled at me and I couldn’t help but smile back at him.    


“Yeah, it’s basically one of those shows for children that I still watch to this day because I love the messages that it tells with this element of carefulness but also blunt honest. I’ve always wanted to give an actual hug to Grover since I was a little girl. I can’t wait to see how it turns out, we’ve already made one drastic change and I’m not telling what it is.” Greg had already promised that he would watch it and I didn’t want to spoil the surprise for him.    


“Aww man that’s no fun, it’s only a couple of days and I’ll find out what it is then. Do either of you know what it is?” Brandon asked Elliot and Jeremy and both of them shook their heads since they didn’t know.    


“Nope, she’s actually been pretty good about keeping this entire operation locket tight. We’ve only found out that she is going to have a scene with Elmo, Abby, Julia, Grover and Telly separately and that’s about it. Pepper knows way more about it than we do so if I can get any information out of her on the plane ride tomorrow I will let you know.” I rolled my eyes at Elliot’s childish nature since Pepper was sworn to secrecy too. 

“I’m already getting most of the homeless people on my block to watch it with me at my house including Ethan and Stephen. They don’t really have television so they don’t know most of what you’re doing here. I’m sure that they’ll end up begging me to let them watch the special though to see Abby in it.” It always amazed me what a big heart Greg had towards the people that were around him who had nothing. It was inspiring to me since the entire world was made up of people who couldn’t care less what happened to the homeless people and would rather just sit there and do nothing. Then you had people like Greg who helped them get food every night, made sure that everyone had enough water so they weren’t dehydrated, helped them with their animals and just gave so much to the world around him.    


“I’m watching it with my grandkids and really looking forward to that. What about you Doug?” Tom asked his best friend who leaned back in the chair he was sitting in.    


“I’m going to watch it with my wife, she sends her good luck by the way. I’ll bet that the scene with Abby Cadabby will be super adorable.” I smiled at my old friend knowing that my interactions with the fairy would probably make me cry.    


"That is the one that’s most likely going to make me cry, I’ve always had this massive love for her character. Not just because we have the same nickname but I just love her personality. She’s always so happy, optimistic, outgoing, open hearted and kind to everyone she meets. It’s either going to be that or Grover that makes me all out bawl my eyes out since he has such a big heart. I love his imagination since I was a really imaginative child with this heart of gold as my dad used to tell me. There’s just this thing that I have about Sesame Street it taught me to be a decent human being and even if I was a little bit too old for it by the time I was able to finally watch it I still was obsessed with it. My sixth birthday was themed to it and I dressed up as the fairy with a bright smile.” I showed my newer friends an image of me dressed up as Abby Cadabby on my sixth birthday.    


“Oh my god, you were the cutest fucking thing I’ve ever seen. I just want to hug you. I wish I hadn’t grown up in Minnesota.” Elliot sighed deeply and I ruffled his new haircut that he had just gotten with a small smile.    


“ True, I wish the same thing but you’re here now. I have so many people around me now that I’m still shell shocked by it.” Ben let out a loud cackle at the end of what I had said and it took me a minute to realize that I had just made a pun. Most of the other turtle voice actors just sighed but I could tell that they loved Ben’s sense of humor.    


“That was so awful even if it wasn’t intentional Abby. I’m glad that you’re here too though, I can’t wait until next week when we start line recording. I’m already seeing hours of bloopers between the five of you especially between you and Josh. Sometimes a lot of his improve ends up in the show, like the fibonacci was his idea.” I smiled at JJ as he pulled back from his desk stretching his arms above his head.    


“ Was it really? That’s so awesome!! I thought that was so funny when his tech-bo started to malfunction. There’s something so amazing about making his character your own since there’s no other Donatello like yours. That’s what I love most about this show is that I see all these infamous characters in a totally different way.” I smiled at the voice actor crossing my legs in the chair that I was sitting in without hitting Jeremy and Belle hopped into my lap.    


“I’m sure that you’ll invent your own catchphrase that will be popular amongst the fans. I can’t wait until you get into that booth and you have that power to be a voice actress. If I had my way you would be on Ducktales too.” I laughed at Ben as he stretched his legs out on the floor and put his arms over his head.    


“What is your favorite type of music?” Omar asked me and I smiled at one of the hardest questions that anybody would have ever asked me.    


“Oh god this question, I listen to so much music and I want to say that my favorite is Queen and just end the conversation there but that would be leaving out Elton John, ACDC, Panic! At The Disco which would be absolute sacrilege in my book, and there’s a lot more that I’m forgetting.” I listed off my top five favorite bands and singers with a small smile on my face.    


“Those are just the bare minimum you should see the playlists that she has on her phone. It’s crazy the amount of music that she listens to but at the same time I love it because her genre is so broad. The only thing that she can’t do is country music.” I gagged externally at the thought of my least favorite kind of music and so did most of the other people in the room.    


“That makes a lot of sense actually I can see you as a Queen fangirl, the Panic is slightly surprising though.” I laughed at Brandon because he would have probably never guessed that I had an edgy side.    


“ I do have an edgy side, it’s not that big of a deal and most of the time I’m able to just be myself. I mean I do own a leather jacket even if it is cartoon related. Technically my love for Brendon Urie started due to my ex-best friend when she got tickets to their concert last year and she didn’t have anyone else to go with her. She spent the entire time ogling some dude in front of us and left me eventually but I was too starstruck to see him right in front of me. I say that he is easily one of the most talented artists in our modern day.” I gushed about one of my favorite bands and lead singers as Josh gave me a high five.    


“A woman with good taste, I can appreciate that. I feel like Donnie would be the type of guy to dance to Panic.” I laughed openly wishing that I could see this come to a form but especially one of my favorite songs.    


“Why do I suddenly need to see him dancing to Dancing Is Not A Crime so badly in my life? I feel like that would be his goto since even I can’t help but give to most of Pray For The Wicked. It’s pretty much one of those albums that I instantly fell in love with much to my dad’s complaining because if I want to be like Dean Winchester he would complain about that.” I laughed to myself finding this to be one of the most relaxing moment of my life to just sit here and talk fandoms and music with the voice actor I would probably be working with the most.    


“ That would be amazing, I feel like that would be his theme song. And with the Brendon Urie same.” Elliot laughed at me and I heard Jeremy’s stomach rumble and I looked down at him as he looked slightly embarrassed.    


“I umm might have skipped breakfast since I was in a hurry and my stepdad was on a rampage.” I rolled my eyes at my boyfriend helping him up off the floor and looking at JJ.    


“Are you joining us in the cafeteria or do you have to stay here?” I asked my new friend and he pushed back from his chair.    


“I’m coming, I should probably eat before I start my new sketches for the storyboard tomorrow. I’ll watch you this weekend though seems like Rob, Doug and Tom are certainly proud of you for doing this.” JJ told me holding the door opened as I followed the rest of our small group to the elevators.    


“Well I’m proud of myself for all that I’m doing to help make this world a better place finally. It feels like I was brought to this planet from an alien world to make this planet just a little bit better and Rob was sent here a few decades earlier to teach me his ways and help me become a better person.” I teased and the voice actor in question just made a silly face at me to try and make me laugh. It succeeded as it usually did since he was just one of those people who was just naturally hysterically funny.    


“ In all honesty JJ, I’m proud of myself finally for once in my life I think that I’m doing the best things that I can to help try and make this world a little bit of a better place. If I can just help to try and make people’s days a little bit brighter than maybe I’m doing what my dad taught me to do and that’s to give people a smile no matter how hard my life gets. Things are getting easier day by day but I’ll always be a little bit sad and lonely because my head gets really loud and I don’t know how to tune it out. I hope that eventually we bring that up as a part of Lizzy’s character arch because that is one of the most frustrating parts about being an aspie at least in my experience.” I mentioned to him and Jeremy only gently kissed my cheek while squeezing my hand and Elliot did the same to my left side where he was walking. 

“I’m surprised that you’re hungry considering that you had the frozen yogurt earlier.” I stuck my tongue out at Josh as he waited up for me and JJ to reach the same place that he had.    


“Well they shared it with me by taking a majority of my treat. It’s alright though, it’s the thought that counts and I appreciate it. I’m feeling a tiny bit better but it’s something that isn’t going away that easily. I have to face it eventually, it’s the inevitable but still at the same time if I had the resources to save him I would. He’s still so young in my eyes that he’s hardly lived his own life but he helped me to move forward with mine.” I pushed my glasses up my nose and sighed deeply knowing that no amount of hope and prayer would stop my close friend from losing this battle. 

“He loves you Abby that much is obvious, a lot of people do and if you lose one of them than you’ll survive. You can’t lose hope that easily, I mean he’s got til November at least right? That’s what he said to you? Then my advice is to spend as much time with him as you possibly can before we lose our ocean man.” Jeremy told me and I found myself fully believing that he was right for once.    


“I fully believe you there Jeremy, sometimes the people in our lives have to suffer and there’s nothing that we can do to help him. All you can do is try to be there for him as much as possible and try to show him how much he means to you.” Elliot reminded me as we stopped in front of the elevator. 

“You’re truly an incredible person Abigail Stark and I think that Stephen considers himself lucky that he even got the opportunity to know you. He loved you so much, there’s this picture up in his office of you dressed up in Spongebob garbs in front of the old Nickelodeon Studios Hotel that he keeps on his desk upstairs. He hardly needs to use that office anymore but sometimes I’ll go up there and he’ll be there just to sit up there and relax for a little while and get out of the house. He would tell me stories about the girl in the picture. About how smart he thought she was, how talented she would be at voice acting, just about how much she would change the world and what she meant to him. I thought that it was sweet how much he admired your talent and knew that I wanted to have you as a cast member on Rise and low and behold that’s what happened.” I listened to JJ’s stories about the man who had taken me by the hand and showed me the ways of the ocean. 

“I didn’t know that he had that picture up there that’s really amazing of him. Spongebob helped bring me here and showed me that being kind and genuine to everyone you meet even if they don’t treat you the same way. It’s kind of childish but it’s something that I spent most of my childhood loving. Meeting him in person was something that changed my life forever since he taught me to always believe in myself and the things that I can accomplish. I used to think that I was just going to become something that I didn’t want to but with Stephen’s help he took me by the hand and showed me how to become my own person that didn’t have to rely on other people.” I laughed at the end of my whole speech and saw the eyes of all my friends that looked to be understanding what I was going through.    


“It makes perfect sense to me since you act a lot like a mix between Spongebob and Donatello. You’re this happy, optimistic, usually smiling genius with a heart of gold that is also prone to rare moments of being overly emotional and letting out her frustration. I thought that was a really compelling character type when you first walked into that meeting room. I think that you act more like Rob’s Donatello but I see a bit of my iteration in there too. When I first got the role I knew that this would be really hard to try and compete with all the other incarnations and how to make mine different. I think that all of us had that problem of what to make cannon that the others have over the years and what to make our own. Part of that is the great writing that we are given and the other is stuff that we come up with on the fly. For instance, it was my idea as a character flaw that he never blames himself and always somebody or something else when an invention goes wrong.” I smiled openly a the voice actor as I checked my phone to see exactly who had texted me. It had been Ethan and Steven to nobody’s surprise but it still warmed my heart that they cared so much about me.    


_ Ethan: I can’t believe that you’re going to actually become a ninja turtle!! And here I thought that you couldn’t get any cooler Abby!!  _

_ Steven: It’s not just about being cool Eth, it’s about the fact that she loves the turtles so much and the fact that she is accomplishing her dreams. I think that it’s incredible that you’re getting to do all these things that you’ve dreamed about. It’s inspiring to me since I have similar dreams and I think that I could actually accomplish them thanks to you.  _ I smiled to myself texting both of them back in our group chat as we waited for the elevator.    
_ Me: I mean it’s amazing to me since I really love what all the actors are doing with these characters, especially Josh and and Donnie. I get to share a booth with him so that I can work off of him since him and Liz are going to be best friends. I can’t wait until I get to read the full script and do everything with all my new friends. They’re all sooo cool, Omar is really nice to me, Brandon is like this Michelangelo on steroids, Ben is one of the funniest people that I’ve ever met and Josh is just incredible to work off of. We’ve already done one tiny scene for my audition but I think it will become one of the highlights of my life.  _ I heard the elevator ding and I put my phone back in my backpack.    


“Was that the twins that texted you? Greg was telling us about these two twins that have basically glued themselves to Abby’s side since they met her last week.” I showed JJ the picture that I had showed everybody else and he just looked at them with this element of sweetness. 

“They’re seriously adorable and it’s clear that they love you more than anything. It’s rare that three people can love a person that much but it seems like every person that you meet ends up loving you in some way. I think that’s one of the most amazing things about you Abby is that it’s clear that everyone in your life loves you in a different way.” I smiled at JJ as I took my phone back and put it gently into my bookbag.    


“Well it’s nothing really that special, I’ve been immensely lucky to have gotten to surround myself with all these amazing friends and loved ones. It’s not just the voice actors either, there’s my dad and Pepper, Vivi and Mimi who were my roommates back in college who will probably be at my birthday party on the 26th of this month which you’re invited to as well JJ. It was Rob’s idea to make it kind of this party to celebrate voice acting. It’s obviously going to be all the Spongebob cast members that are downstairs as well as probably Carolyn since I’ve kind of acted like a bad friend to her. It’s hard for me to talk to her probably because I spent most of my childhood trying to act like Sandy. Also there will be John DiMaggio hopefully since if not these two will probably sue me, and maybe Stephen will come depending on how he’s feeling that day. I hope that he can come because it would mean the world to me and I’m going to miss him so much.” I sighed deeply having went there again and Jeremy just kissed me gently.    


“Everything is going to be great Abby, you just need to relax and take things day by day. I know it’s hard for you since you’re such a loving and caring person but you can’t carry the weight of the world upon your shoulders love. It’s hard enough to focus on one thing at a time but having to do all the incredible things that you are and to remember to eat which you’ve been doing a great job of so far and I’m really proud of you.” Jeremy praised and Elliot just put his arm around my shoulders and I melted into his side. 

“He’s totally right Abby, you’ve been eating much better since we had that conversation last week and that’s critical. She has a bit of an eating problem where she gets too busy and she’ll sometimes go days without eating solid food.” Elliot explained and I didn’t feel bad that he told them what I was going through when I saw Josh nod I knew that it was obvious.    


“It’s not that in my face but you are really skinny and that was one of the first things I noticed I was like in the back of my mind get this girl a burger.” I laughed but at the same time he would probably need to know about my food diet.    


“I’m actually vegetarian as I mentioned just briefly earlier today. I had a really nasty experience at school with the relation with meat and I haven’t had it since I was six years old. I could never go full vegan because I love cheese and ice cream to do that to myself.” I gave my preference for food and JJ just looked at me with a soft smile.    


“I actually figured that you were veggie when I saw your relationship with your dog earlier. I thought at first that maybe you two were just close but then Rob told me that you were vegetarian and that made all the sense. It reminds me of the relationship with Greg and Wingman, is that where your dog will be staying while you’re in New York and Jersey?” I nodded my head pushing a piece of hair behind my ear with a small smile.    


“Yeah he actually offered I didn’t even have to ask him if he would watch Belle for me. It’s just kind of that person that he is, he’s a giver and I find that super inspiring because I try to be the same way but before I met him I wasn’t really sure how to do that. I say that he’s pretty much my older brother even though I’ve only known him a small amount of time. He helps to keep me grounded and I guess I can tell you guys this since he’s not in the room but if one of you guys spills before the day is over I won’t forgive that easily.” I threatened with an excited smile and they all promised that they wouldn’t tell him anything. Which was good because this was one of the things that I was most excited to do on Sesame Street this weekend.    


“Okay so I got to pick all the muppets that I’m getting to work with except for one which is a newer one. At first, I thought that I had everything figured out with who I wanted to share scenes with but I love a lot of muppets on the show. One of my favorites that I didn’t know originally if I wanted to work with was Telly the slightly neurotic one. But, once I met Greg I figured out what I wanted to teach the kids. I’m going to show Telly the beauty of meditation the same way that Greg taught me.” I explained with a bright smile and Elliot only kissed me with a small smile on his face.    


“Never stop surprising me baby, there’s something so different but at the same time amazing about you. I’ve never met another person that would do something like this for their friends and to help teach kids how to ground themselves.” Elliot squeezed my hand and Josh just gave me a small smile.    


“I know that he’s going to love it, I’ve been watching you interact with him most of the day. I’ll be honest and say that I hope that our relationship eventually becomes the same way. I think that it’s amazing that you can look at something so simple like that and know in your heart that it’s the right thing to do.” Josh told me and I smiled brightly at him as Jeremy shook himself having been stunned to silence. 

“He’s going to cry, I’m calling it right now if you thought that it was bad when you met him for the first time this is going to be new levels of emotions. He’s got this center to him that allows him to wear his emotions on his sleeve. Someday I want to be like that…” Jeremy said wistfully and we all laughed at him as the elevator reached the bottom floor where the cafeteria was.    


“I think that you could really benefit from that Jere-bear, it’s something that’s so critical to me now that I question what I was doing before I met him last week. I never would have guessed that I would consider him one of my favorite people when I was six years old but now that he is I’m entirely not surprised.” I followed the gang to where the rest of our friends were sitting and saw a vegetarian cheeseburger with colby jack cheese and I grinned to myself at the caringness of all my friends.    


“ Well thank you for getting me something that’s veggie, I don’t know why I’m surprised but thank you anyways.” I sat down next to my two boyfriends with my voice acting family all moving chairs so that we could sit together.    


“ You’re welcome sunshine, the veggie burgers here actually aren’t that bad. I knew that pasta at Warner Brothers wasn’t your favorite so this will probably be much better.” I shrugged my shoulders because that pasta wasn’t really bad per say it was just they were too big for their britches.    


“ It was okay, all I’m saying is that I make a better pasta than that and you know it. I’m actually a pretty good cook since I had to make most of my own food when I was at MIT. Sure, there was the rare night when my roommates and I split a pizza but those were few and far between. We didn’t really have a lot of money but we still did what we could.” I smiled at my friends as they all carried their own food to the tables that we had pushed together and Doug moved to sit next to Elliot and Greg next to Jeremy. We all filled together and sat down comfortably in the chairs.    


“So Abby, what’s your favorite movie?” Omar asked me and I smiled shyly pushing a lock of hair behind my ear.    


“Well I’m animation nut but for the sake of sounding redundant I’ll just say that the name of my dog was inspired by my all time favorite Disney movie. I have an obsession with Beauty And The Beast. But, I also have a massive love for a few live action movies too like I adore Tombstone, Princess Bride, Back To The Future and Painted Veil. It’s a really weird combination of movies but I know all of them frontwards, backwards, sideways and slantways.” I told them my five favorite movies that I had spent most of my entire life watching. The most recent edition to that list was Painted Veil which I read the book and then watched the movie with Pepper during winter break in my last year of college.    


“That is a really strange list but at the same time it also makes perfect sense. I can totally see you watching and quoting all of those movies. Especially Beauty And The Beast, Tombstone and Princess Bride since they are so memorable.” JJ told me and I nodded my head and taking the first bite from my burger which actually was quite delicious.    


“She does love Painted Veil though, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve needed to watch it with her. Edward Norton is her favorite actor and she’ll pretty much take anything that he’s in. I always tease her that I have to compete with Walter Fane the main love interest in that movie. She also loves him in Birdman, pretty much anything in Wes Anderson’s arsenal, Frida, Red Dragon and a bunch of other stuff that she’s watched multiple times.” Jeremy listed off a number of my favorite Edward Norton movies and I nudged his shoulder to get him to try and make me look like less of a nerd.    


“I blame myself for showing her a majority of those movies since I love him too especially if we’re talking Wes Anderson. She has shown me Painted Veil as well and as awkward as that movie was I still loved just about every moment because it’s a story about redemption of a character that even at the end you question whether or not she truly ever loved him back.” Doug argued and we had this conversation so many times that I didn’t want to get into it right now. 

“I figured that Beauty was your favorite Disney movie because of Belle but I never would have guessed that your favorite actor was Norton. I think that it’s adorable that you didn’t choose somebody who’s popular amongst your generation but more for the older crowd. What is your favorite character that he’s ever played for Wes Anderson?” Ben asked me wanting for me to clearly keep talking about my favorite actor.    


“Well I really love ScoutMaster Randy Ward from Moonrise Kingdom and I quote him a lot with my dad, actually scratch that I’m a camp counselor first math teach on the side and if you guys didn’t think that I was a nerd before I definitely am now. Jeremy why did you have to bring this up?” I hung my head in shame until Tom got me to look up at him where he had this goofy smile on his face.    


"It’s okay Abby Cadabby, we don’t judge around here you of all people should know that you’re amongst friends here that won’t judge you. I want for them to know you just as well as me, Doug, Rob, Jeremy and Elliot seem to.” Elliot and Jeremy only squeezed both of my hands trying to calm me down.    


“I think that your nerdy side is adorable because not a lot of people are willing to let that side of them out. You seem to be at one with that part of you like the rest of us are. You kind of have to be a nerd to be in this business honey. Besides it’s Edward Norton that you’re talking about, he’s a brilliant actor and a master of his craft. What about The Illusionist have you seen that movie?” I nodded my head animatedly at the question since that movie had meant a lot to me during my years in college.    


“Yeah, that’s one of my favorites!! I watch that movie all the time with pretty much anybody who will offer it up as an option for movie night ask him he knows not to bring up any Edward Norton movie to me for that reason. He was just one of those actors that I loved almost instantly and the first movie that I ever saw him in was when Doug took me to Moonrise Kingdom since I had really loved Fantastic Mr. Fox.” I told her and the rest of the table just started to grow closer together and they all seemed to want to ask me questions.    


“Sunshine has always been able to look at the most intense of movies and analyze it to pieces. The first time that she watched Tombstone and we got to the second to last scene and she just instantly gets it. I assume that most of you have seen it since eighty percent of us are older actors but I won’t say anything to you if you haven’t seen it.” Rob told them and I just smiled at one of my favorite memories of sitting around with Rob and his son watching their favorite movie.    


“Your knowledge of movies is certainly impressive but what about just regular live action television? We know that you’re a huge fan of Supernatural, Doctor Who and Sherlock but is there anything else?” Brandon asked me and I nodded my head knowing that there was one other show that I did really love but wasn’t finished with it yet.    


“ I love Mr. Robot even if I don’t watch it nearly as much as I would like to and here’s why. As addictive as it can be it’s also one of the most depressing shows that I know of. It sucks the life out of me most of the time, maybe it’s because I find the main character’s struggles to be some of the most relatable. I mean it’s a man in his twenties with social anxiety that is his greatest burden. He has to learn to cope with that and I find that hit way too much to home for me.” I told all of them reaching for the second half of my sandwich and drinking the water that was given to me.    


“I concur the show is way too real for people that have to deal with that on a regular basis. It’s sad but at the same time a lot of people can probably look at it and feel inspired by his story.” Josh told hem and I found myself agreeing with him because he was technically right.    


“She also loves to watch Supergirl when that’s on the CW and her favorite is Winn isn’t that right?” Rob asked me and I nodded my head with a small smile on my face at the mention of one of my favorite characters on modern television.    


“That’s true I do watch that show when it’s on and only for that one side character but Jeremy Jordan is leaving the show and going back to Broadway to do a play. I did love all the antics of the technology nerd with a snarky sense of humor and a heart of gold. I pretty much realize a pattern and that all started with 03 Donatello which was my first one because it’s the one that was airing at the time.” I told them pushing my glasses farther up my nose because it was naturally tiny. 

“Okay so we now that your favorite actor is Edward Norton what about actresses? You surely have to love at least one actress.” Brandon asked me and I swallowed the bite that I had just taken. 

“Well there’s a lot of female characters that I love but I don’t have a set actress that I can just look at and say that they are my favorite. None of them really spoke to me like Edward Norton did and I don’t really know why I love him so much because there have been other actors that have taken my heart as well. Robin Williams with the funny and same thing with Billy Crystal I love both equally but there hasn’t been an actress so far that has really spoken to me in a way that those three did.” I tried to explain and Elliot just rested his head on my shoulder and I kissed his forehead gently.    


“Three of the biggest names in the industry they all taught her something about herself. I think that she acts the most like Edward but I can see speckles of the other two in her.” Tom told all of us and I just smiled shyly to myself having already made a fool of myself with that movie quote that this was the most comfortable I have ever been.    


“I do have a favorite female character though, it’s from a movie that I watch every New Years with my dad who jokes that I’m as fiery as she is. It’s Amy Archer in Hudsucker Proxy.” Josh gave me a high five from over where he was sitting and all my other new friends just laughed at me. 

“With the hair and your somewhat bubbly personality I can kind of see it that you have this hidden fire buried there that we’ve yet to see.” Omar told me and I laughed at him finishing my sandwich and moving to the fries on the other side. We just spent the rest of the time talking to each other about various experiences and we went down to the voice acting section again getting to see everyone play their characters and seeing Elliot’s eyes light up when he saw Doug’s evil laugh was one of the greatest things that I have ever seen in my entire life. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi All!! Welcome to the Nickelodeon studios chapter for anybody that's reading this still. I've been obsessed with both the 2012 and newer iteration of the Ninja Turtles and think that both are amazing in their own ways. I hope that everyone is having a happy new year and I will try to update more regularly.


	4. Chapter four

_“Miss Stark? You told me to wake you up an hour and a half earlier so that you could make it to Venice Beach for your morning meditation and to drop Belle off with Mr. Cipes.”_ JARVIS’s deadpan tone is what woke me up long before I was ready physically to awaken but I listened to the robot AI anyways.   
“Thanks Jarv, I’m sorry to have to leave you here since Pepper and Happy are coming with me as well. If Obadiah comes by tell him that I’ve gone on vacation and not to bother me. I doubt that he’ll come by here and it will be good anyways.” I ordered from the artificial intelligence telling him about how my dad’s two right hand people were coming with me. 

_“_ _Yes Miss Stark I completely understand why this must be a thing. It matters not what he thinks since he doesn’t know just how hard you’re working on the homeless schools for people anyways. I wish you the best of luck tomorrow morning with your television debut. I also hope that you enjoy your time at the theme park with Mr. Kenny and Mr. Lawrence.”_ Belle hopped off my bed to go and get her own breakfast and I took a quick shower washing my hair and getting dressed in the outfit that I had picked out last night. It was my favorite Plankton shirt that Doug had made especially for me the first day that he met me. It had him at the bottom of the shirt doing his evil laugh that was so iconic in the back of my mind and above him it said _“Plan Z it’s lemon scented!!”_ something that I used to quote with my dad all the time. I found him to be one of the best villains for cartoons since he taught me so much about both myself and how to laugh at people. I also had my leggings that looked like jeggings but I put on swim shorts so that sand wouldn’t get on them that I put on first and my new Beast Boy sneakers laid out before me. I brushed my hair leaving it down and loose today so that it wouldn’t bother me on the airplane ride. It would be the first time that I see the sunrise on Venice Beach and I would actually pick up a smoothie today since when I got back I would need to go to the store and get more fruit. There was a Jamba Juice near Venice Beach where I could get my favorite smoothie. I yawned rubbing the sleep out of my eyes before putting on my Michelangelo sweatshirt and lacing up my shoes. I heard my dog start to whine near the garage door wanting to probably go out with me. 

“We’re leaving right now baby girl, I want to spend time with Greg and Wingman D too. You’re going to be seeing a lot of them during the next couple of days okay? Mommy has to go on a small trip and I’ll be away for a few days. I’ll miss my baby girl though.” She licked my face as if saying that she understood and would be waiting for me when I got back. 

“You’re such a good girl, my little beauty. You know what you deserve? A little treat for being such an angel.” I offered her a bag of treats that I had bought with Jeremy a few days ago that my doggie seemed to really love. She only yipped happily at me and I gave her two of the bones taking them with me as I put her leash on her and she led me with a happy trot to my car. I had the firm belief that when my dad did eventually meet her he would be wrapped around his little finger. I opened the door for her and she just jumped up to sit down next to me chewing on her second treat that I had just given her. 

“Ready to go honey? I’m sure ready to go to our favorite place. You’re going to be good for Greg aren’t you? I’m sure that you will be because you’re such a sweetheart.” I dotted and started my car hearing it rev up to a gentle purr as we drove over to where we were our best selves. She only barked in acknowledgement I had my three favorite plushies in my backpack that I was taking with me and my luggage had all my favorite cartoon shirts and everything else. I stopped at the smoothie shop remembering my conversation with Josh yesterday and heard his voice in the back of my mind _You can’t just have a smoothie for breakfast Abby, that’s not healthy._ I could get something somewhere else maybe ask for something on the Starkplane in an hour and a half. I just got my usual peach perfection smoothie which was a nice difference from the smoothie that I usually made. Me and Belle drove the rest of the way to Venice with her little head out the window fur billowing in the breeze. I stopped driving once I reached up the beach and the sun started to rise in the east. I saw the man that I was looking for in his usual spot down the beach with a relaxed smile on his face. I looked around from Wingman and saw him next to his master looking up at him until he saw Belle to which he shot up and started coming our way and I unleashed my dog letting her run free for a little while with her best friend. 

“You’re here early, that’s to be expected though since you’re leaving in a little while. Are you nervous to be on television?” Greg asked me opening one eye with a brighter smile on his face being in my presence. 

“A little bit but not as much as I would be if I hadn’t started coming here to talk to you. You’ve helped me so much with calming my inner demons that used to bug me so often. Even Jeremy told me that I’m looking much more relaxed I used to be so tense that you couldn’t even recognize me.” I tried to joke but Greg just looked at me as if he knew exactly what was going on inside my mind. 

“That’s not very good, though I’m glad that I have been making you feel better upstairs. That shirt is fantastic by the way and I totally read that in his voice.” I laughed at my new friend that I had only made recently but we were really close already. 

“When I first got it he said it in his exact voice that he uses for his character. It’s one of the strangest things seeing him do it in person but I love him so much. You also found out about my Edward Norton problem so that’s a thing.” I could literally go on for hours about one of my favorite people who had changed my life much like Brain May or Elton John.

“I thought that it was actually really interesting, it’s hard to not love him when he’s so charming on screen or stage. Have you ever met him?” I got into my relaxed state of mind that he often told me I needed to do and breathed deeply. 

“Obviously the answer to that question is no but I’ve always really wanted to. I have a feeling that my dad would do anything for me including getting me to talk to Edward Norton. I mean he’s got me to meet all my other favorite voice actors why not my favorite real one. I’ll have to have that conversation with him when he gets back. I have this feeling that I will need someone there as a sound barrier so I don’t sound like a total idiot around him though. Elliot would probably be good since it doesn’t seem like he’s seen much of his stuff.” I gushed and Greg only laughed at me openly with his typical smile that was both relaxed and natural. 

“I don’t think that you could ever sound like a complete idiot but I can see where you’re coming from. That was basically me the first time I met Rob when he was on for an episode of Teen Titans as a small bit part. I already knew Tom obviously because he was Mambo the magician remember?” I nodded my head enthusiastically because I had recognized even as a little girl that was the same voice of Spongebob just in a different pitch. I took a sip from my peach smoothie with a small smile at my friend. 

“Well I cried the first time that I met Doug, Tom, Carolyn and Stephen that day at the hotel. It was this compilation of all these people that I had loved and admired throughout the last nine years of my life. That was when Doug gave me this shirt, it was all Plankton themed things and I still own most of them. This is probably my favorite thing that was in there though and I used to wear it all the time. The first time that I ever met Rob, he was this icon in my eyes since the new iteration of Ninja turtles had came out the year before and you guys were just gearing up for season two and I had watched Animaniacs a ton in elementary school. It was my favorite cartoon since it not only taught lessons but it was also one of the funniest cartoons that I had ever seen up to that point in my life. So I see him sitting at the table talking with Ciro Nieli and I just start to freak out internally. Little did thirteen year old me at the time realize that Rob Paulsen would become one of her best friends in the entire world.” I took a deep breath through my mouth working on that center of gravity to calm me down from my inner voices.

“I’ll bet that you were so cute that day when you walked down there seeing those people you had spent much of your life looking at and thinking I want to be them. I’m going to miss you these next couple of days, I think the twins will too. You’re quickly becoming one of our favorite people around here. My meditation certainly won’t be the same with you away.” He told me honestly and I smiled at my friend who had already taught me so much about myself. 

“I doubt that I’ve made that much of an impact on people’s lives so quickly. I’ve only been here for one week. I’ll miss all of you too, the barbecues at night looking up at the stars are amazing. I love how it’s just so chilled out here, I just have this vibe that I can be myself and nobody will judge me. So, JJ told me that you got offered to take another ride on the turtle van as one of Donnie’s inventions? That’s so cool!! We’ll get to work together since that’s in the new season and hopefully people will react to Liz well.” I was so pumped about my new character and couldn’t wait to bring her to life and see how people reacted towards her. 

“Yeah I got asked to be a robot called S.H.E.L.D.O.N and if you say that in Karen’s voice I swear…” I laughed at my friend having him knowing me so well already that he knew my references to other cartoons a mile away. 

“Well I wasn’t going to but now that you’ve told me not to do that I feel compelled to do exactly that so ahem… your name is Sheldon?” I did the last part in a perfect impression of the computer wife of my favorite Nickelodeon cartoon villain and actually got a laugh out of him. 

“Anyways forgetting that happened, I’m really glad that they asked me to take another character on especially for a show this creative and different. I love the turtles so much for what they taught me about my own life. They’re so ridiculous and the plot should be so ludicrous that it shouldn’t work but for some reason it does.” I smiled at my friend pushing a lock of hair that the wind blew in front of my face behind my ear. 

“When you really think about it a lot of my favorite cartoons shouldn’t work on paper but in practice they are some of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen. Spongebob, TMNT, Fosters Home For Imaginary Friends and there’s so many more that I’ve loved as the years have gone by. I still am trying to tell myself that I’m an actual turtle family member now and that yesterday actually happened. I’ve wanted to be a voice actress throughout my entire childhood and now that I’m finally one of them it means so much to me. I’m still trying to process it probably emotionally but I feel great.” This was the first time in over two weeks that I’ve actually felt at peace and like everything would work out in the end of the day. It’s been so hard not having my dad around to support me emotionally but all the same I knew in my heart that he was smart and would find his way back home to me eventually. I couldn’t get down in the dumps about this because he wouldn’t want me to. 

“I’m proud of you Abby, you’ve been handling this entire mess that is your life right now really well. You could have wallowed in self pity blaming yourself that you should have done something but you didn’t. Instead, you went and surrounded yourself with the people that matter the most to you. It’s not easy to find your center and to put everything else away at the door like I do especially now but there are some things that we can do to people’s lives just a little bit easier.” I smiled gratefully at my best friend being super comfortable just sitting here and talking to him.

“I mean at first that’s kinda what happened, the first week I wouldn’t really talk about it at all. I would just sort of bury it and not discuss my feelings with anybody and for the time I was comfortable with that. That was until I met you and you helped me become more open about what I was feeling and discussing that with other people. You’ve helped me so much already and I’ve not even known you very long but you’ve still helped me become so much more confident in what I’m actually feeling and judging my anxiety levels earlier on in the daytime. It’s because of that when I suddenly know if I need to have one of my no people days where I spend a majority of the day marathoning cartoons or whatever show that I want to watch. Those happen to me more often than not even when my dad is at home and he’s the one that shows up with ice cream and listens to me vent about whatever I’m going through. I miss him so much… some days are worse than others I think it’s all just coming to a hed right now.” I told him and he just opened his blue eyes to look at me for a moment as I could tell that he wanted to say something important to me. 

“I get that you miss him Abby it makes perfect sense why you would. It sounds like your father is all you ever knew apart from Rob and maybe a few other people. The next time that you have one of those no people days you text me alright? I want to be there to help you in some way incase he never comes back. I’m not saying that he’s gone forever I’m just trying to think ahead if he doesn’t come back. I can’t imagine what you must be going through in the back of your mind most days. Your internal struggle between what you want to do and what this Obadiah person wants for you to do. You’ve still overcome it all and showed him that you have the talent to become anything that you want. You miss Tony which only makes sense because he was your chosen father. I think that the people who adopt children have the more ability to love them since they got to pick whomever they want. He picked you and it’s clear to me that he picked a good one for him. Someone so smart, funny, creative, wise, strong, artistic, imaginative and perfect to save this world from itself. I’m so proud of you this week Abby. You’re already doing so many amazing things with the shelter and everything else. I can’t believe that you’re actually going through with it. At first I thought okay maybe she just is doing this because she misses her dad and this is her way of coping and that’s part of it but the other part is just the fact that you are one of the kindest people that I have ever met in my entire life. It’s with your kindness that all these people are choosing to surround themselves with you.” Greg just went off on me and I couldn’t help but want to listen and to believe everything that he was saying to me. He was one of those people that when they spoke, it was always the truth and they never sugarcoated anything. I thought that Elliot was much of the same way and maybe that’s why yesterday they were getting along so well.

“Alright I understand what you’re trying to tell me that I’m a good person and whatnot. I’ll agree for the sake of this not becoming a huge debate that I’ll wind up losing. I really am not the best with the whole self worth and everything. It’s something that I have in common with my dad he’s the same way. I look at classic characters that people compare me to like Donatello or Spongebob and I think to myself no I love them too much for them to ever be me…” I pushed a lock of hair that the wind had blown my direction as my friend only looked at me with a raised eyebrow. 

“That’s true you don’t act like either one of those characters. You have traits that you have in common with them for sure, more Donnie than anything else but you are also your own person. That is something that nobody can ever take away from you sunshine, you don’t mind if I call you that sometimes right? I’ve noticed that Rob calls you that a lot of the time so if that’s just a you and he thing then I’ll come up with something else.” I looked up at the man that I had spent most of my childhood idolizing and wanting to be tell me about how I was my own person and I hadn’t even realized that I started crying.

“Yeah you can call me sunshine, it’s mostly a me and Rob thing that he stole from my dad but he stopped calling me that once he started. He wanted us to kind of have our own thing but it doesn’t bother me at all.” I continued to cry but I just dried my tears that were pooling there. 

“I’ll think of something else it’s cool, I’ll let you two have your own little thing going on. Have you ever seen a Cohen brother’s movie that isn’t Hudsucker? While that one is a great family tradition to have every year they actually made my favorite movie of all time.” I shook my head at him because the only movie that they had made that I had seen was the one and only Hudsucker Proxy. 

“No I haven’t, that’s the only one that I’ve ever seen. True, my dad references their other movies like Frago and Big Lebowski I’ve never seen them. I’ve always kind of wanted to see the ladder though, that’s probably your favorite movie right?” I asked him and he just nodded his head at me with a small smile. 

“It’s obscene in a lot of ways and probably drops the f-bomb way more than it should but I love it all the same. It’s one of those movies that anybody can look at and at least get a couple of laughs out of those crazy characters. We’ll have to watch it together once you come back and you can show me some of your favorite Edward Norton movies. I’ll admit to never seeing Painted Veil before though I have heard things.” I let out a gasp that was obviously fake when he mentioned that he hadn’t seen my favorite romantic drama movie.

“I’m only messing with you, I would love that a lot that sounds great. It’s one of my favorite movies no matter how much it makes me cry. The characters are so good and it’s an actual good love story. It’s not one of those love at first sight things it’s gradual which is one of my favorite things about it. Well most of the time the love that is there is one sided and not felt from one party while felt from the other. That movie pretty much got me through college like every movie that Edward Norton has been in and sometimes Viki and Mimi questioned it but they still sat and watched it with me anyways. I used to want my own Walter Fayne when I was suffering through college but I pretty much got two people that are almost nothing like him. I love his growth and the way that he treats his love interest Kitty is both understandable and at the same time heartbreaking. Sorry I’m talking a lot about this, Doug will tell you that anything Edward Norton I’m obsessed with but that movie is my favorite hands down.” I gushed about one of my favorite movies that had changed my own life not even noticing that Greg was not only listening to me but hanging onto every word that I was saying. 

“Don’t apologize for that, it was amazing like Rob was saying I can’t wait until we can watch movies together and hear more of your thoughts about them. I’ve only ever seen the bare minimum of his movies, enough to know when somebody was talking about him but not much else. I loved him in Birdman that was a fantastic performance. In my humble opinion he was gipped from his Oscar nod that year. It was such bullshit that he didn’t get it.” I laughed at my friend because he had the same feelings that I had towards the award season that year. 

“You have no idea how relatable that thought is, I hardly ever watch the awards season but that one I did because I was so certain that he had it in the bag. I was ready to tell my dad that it was in his face since every year we bet against each other and mine was that we would go back to Hawaii and for him I had to fix all his cars when I got back for summer vacation at college. Obviously he won that round and I lost, I was so pissed about it too. I loved him in that movie because he was such an ass but at the same time it was him acting and I loved him at the same time.” I smiled at the memory as Belle came over to me shaking her wet fur as I shrieked but laughed at the same time when Wingman went and did the same thing to Greg.

“Dogs, you have to love them but at the same time they go and betray you by doing stuff like this. I should really get going anyways, I don’t want to miss my plane even though it technically is my plane. I’ll miss you baby but be good okay? I know that you will because there will be treats involved once I get a good report when I come back.” She licked my face and I just rubbed her wet fur that was still there. 

“Get out of here Abby, you don’t want to miss your plane and I don’t want to be responsible for that. I’m sure that your little girl will be a perfect angel. I’ll tell the twins that they missed you because they overslept on accident. They hardly ever join me this early in the morning anyways.” I kissed my friends cheek waving to him and my dog before I left getting into my car and driving off down the road. I changed into my leggings while in the car and got my luggage out of my trunk seeing Happy who picked up both of my boyfriends for me and Pepper who had driven herself parking behind the plane knowing that nobody would tow her car. 

“I thought that you were just dropping Belle off and then coming right back.” Happy crossed his arms pretending to be angry with me and I put my hands up in surrender at my old friend.

“I’m sorry Haps, I lost track of time I probably shouldn’t have done the full meditation with him. We were just talking and I lost track of what time it was.” My boyfriends only smiled at me giving me a group hug that left me melting into it. 

“I figured that was what happened, never let her just go to Venice Beach with only one set objective. It will take her hours to get back here.” Pepper joked and I stuck my tongue out at my old friend who was more like my mother. 

“I’ll cut her some slack because Greg is so amazing, I think that meeting him yesterday changed my life.” I smiled at Jeremy and knew that he was going to get along with my good friend just about perfectly. 

“I feel the same way but about Doug, he was so nice and getting to see him actually be Plankton was one of those things that I’ll never forget. Awesome shirt by the way, I need it in my life one day it might be stolen by me. I don’t care if it’s a girls shirt I need it.” I laughed at Elliot rolling my eyes at him because he would have to kill me before he took my favorite shirt. 

“You would have to kill her before you took that shirt, it’s her favorite at least one of them. He gave that to her in the gift basket that was full of personally made Plankton things. Most of what he gave her was handcrafted because obviously it’s the shows main villain not a very popular character.” Happy told her and I just smiled at my dad’s closest confident aside from Pepper glad that he was coming with us. 

“It’s true, there were a lot of really amazing things in that bag. I think that was easily her best birthday because I got to see her eyes light up when she was around her favorite voice actors. It was a beautiful thing since she’s usually so shy but getting to see her talk animatedly with Rob Paulsen almost instantly was the cutest thing.” Pepper told them and I hugged my closest girlfriend and one of those people that I would spend most of my life looking up to. 

“I know I’m really close with a lot of them arguably closest with Rob but I think Greg is quickly moving up the ranks. I owe him a lot and I’m so glad that he’s in my life. We’ve already got a movie day scheduled for when I get back, he’s never seen Painted Veil and that is a travesty that needs to be quickly fixed. He wants to watch Big Lebowski with me so we’re doing that as well.” I told them taking my luggage and my boyfriends just shook their heads at me. 

“You know, I haven’t seen a lot of Edward Norton movies myself. I mean I know who he is but just haven’t found the time to watch all of his movies like somebody I know.” I scoffed at Elliot rolling my eyes at him but keeping the same genuine smile on my face. 

“Hey, you might have only known me for a short amount of time but you should know by now that I don’t half ass anything I go full throttle into every fandom that I’m in. Whether that’s being obsessed with a certain actor, cartoon or television show nothing is done halfway. I either love it or it isn’t on my radar.” I tried to joke but I knew by the smirk on Jeremy’s face that it was embarrassing story time. 

“She loves a lot of things but once you get her going on about acting and her favorite actor she’ll go off at you for hours. I remember when she first started to really get into him we were fifteen and she was in her senior year of high school having just seen Moonrise Kingdom that weekend with Doug. She drags me to the theater with her and would not stop talking about how cute the actor for the camp counselor was.” I blushed a flaming bright pink when he told Elliot that humiliating story from when I was a young teenager still and hearing his cackle of laughter didn’t make anything better. 

“Alright, you’ve got me, I’ve always found Edward Norton cute what do you want from me?!” I lashed out them thoroughly humiliated about the fact that Jeremy had brought that up and now a blushing disaster. Elliot just came to sit by me in the booth that had large book-like menus in front of us and cuddled into my side.

“It’s not that embarrassing baby, I mean you know how I feel about Brendon Urie right? Having a celebrity crush is perfectly normal and while I haven’t seen yours in much I know enough to know that he is an amazing actor and very attractive.” He comforted me like a pro and Jeremy came to my other side to cuddle me as well leaving me in the middle of a cuddle-sandwich. 

“Are there any head canons that you want to make legit once you start working on Rise?” Pepper asked me moving to sit across from us with Happy and I thought about the question. 

“There is one that I really love and it’s the fact that Donatello and Leonardo are twins in this version of the story. I mean I love both of them and they act a lot alike both with the sarcastic streak of a thousand suns. I don’t know maybe it’s just me and tumblr that are the only ones that see this stuff and I’m alone on it.” I answered honestly smiling at Pepper as she she started to type on her laptop. 

“I think that it’s great what Rob did for you, technically you have this role because of him and the kindhearted, lovable goofball that he is.” Happy mentioned and I nodded my head with a soft smile at my old friend.

“Well yeah, I mean as if the man hasn’t done enough for me already he goes and pulls something like this. He doesn’t need to do half of the things he’s done for me in the past but still does. I don’t know why he decided to stick with me all these years but overtime I began to look at him in the same vein as my dad. I would probably be face down in the self-loathing ditch without either of them at my sides and someday I hope that I can repay him for everything that he has ever done for me.” I melted into the back of the cushions at the booth as our pilot came over. I didn’t remember this one but he had a good smile and looked highly qualified judging by the number of badges that he had on his shirt. 

“Miss Stark? Your dad hired me while you were away college, I’m Keaton it’s nice to meet you. I’ll be handling the affairs of flight these next couple of days with you.” I shook the pilot’s hand with a small but at the same time nervous smile since I had never met this man before. 

“It’s umm nice to meet you too.” I said awkwardly and somewhat quietly trying to pay more attention to my shoes than to him. 

“She’s a little bit shy on her first introductions unless you’re a famous voice actor than she’ll start talking your ear off. It’s nice to see you Keaton, Abby is just a little anxious. She’s not the biggest fan of flying.” Pepper told the pilot and I let out a light breath at the fact that she spoke for me. 

“Which one is your favorite that you have ever met? My daughter loves cartoons and animation as well, I think her favorite right now is the new Ninja Turtles. I think that the older one is better but there are some things that I like about this one.” I smiled as we had moved to one of my favorite topics of conversation talking about voice acting. 

“My personal favorites and I have a long list that I’ve met before and am actually really close friends with all of them. Tom Kenny he’s amazing and is a constant joy to be around, Doug Lawrence he gave me this shirt and is obviously the voice of Plankton really talented at his job and one of the funniest people that I’ve ever met, Rob Paulsen because you can’t be into animation and not love him he’s one of my closest friends more like family and the most recent edition to my small little family of voice actors Greg Cipes in all his amazing Beast Boy glory.” I listed hearing the buzz of my phone and looking down seeing an image that Greg had sent me. It was Wingman cuddling with Belle and I found it to be the cutest thing I had probably ever seen in my entire life. 

“Wow that’s a lot of people, I wasn’t really expecting that. Have you ever thought about working in animation yourself? Your dad brags that you are quite the artist and actress.” I rolled my eyes because of course he would be bragging about me to the people who are supposed to be focusing and doing their jobs. 

“She actually just got cast on the new Ninja Turtles show thanks to her friendship with Rob. And the fact that she totally nailed the audition on the head. I’m super stoked that she actually got the role, I’m so proud of you baby.” Elliot kissed the side of my cheek that he was on and I blushed a bright pink color. 

“Oh no way?! Let me guess your personal favorite is Donatello? He’s actually the one thing about the show that I really love what their doing with. That and Leonardo even if it took me a long while to get used to his jokester nature that they're going for now.” I smiled at my new friend that I had just made texting back Greg with a heart-eyed emoji. 

“Yeah, she’s always been really talented with the whole acting thing and she used to spend hours on the couch with Rob whenever she got a new character just going over motivation and things like that. Tony always joked that those were two peas in a pod. Though I hear that she got along quite well with the voice actor for the modern iteration of Donnie.” Happy explained to him and I smiled brightly at the mention of my new friend.

“Oh he’s amazing!! I’m really excited to get to work off of him thank heavens because if it was just me in the booth by myself I would be way too nervous.” Jeremy took out his phone and I nearly smacked his lower arm when I saw that he had taken video of the recording session that me and Josh had together. 

“You’re not supposed to do that Jeremy, and to think I got busted when I tried to film Doug’s evil laugh to make that my new ringtone.” Elliot joked because he had tried but the director of the show at the moment, major piece of work told him that he couldn’t do that. 

“Well sorry honey, I didn’t know before I did it. Nobody stopped me so how was I supposed to know that wasn’t allowed? They had pretty much lightning fast chemistry together and it was really something to watch in amazement. She usually has a really hard time talking with new people, even voice actors but there are those rare occurrences where she’s able to talk with them about anything and everything much like Rob or Josh. I think even Greg was like that wasn’t he love?” I nodded my head with a small smile. Talking about my favorite people and bragging about how amazingly talented all of them were is one of my favorite things. 

“It sounds like you’re having quite the time of your life there Abigail Stark. I was just coming back to introduce myself to you and your party and to tell that the weather in New York is looking cold but good and we should be able to make a swift and safe flight.” He told me and I looked up seeing the airplane’s chef coming out of the kitchen, my dad’s idea since he has a hard time even making the simplest of foods. If he could have his own personal chef he would be able to find a way me and Pepper always told him no.

“Abby, hello it’s been a long time hasn’t it? I assume that you’re not going to want anything?” Jenny the personal chef on the flight today asked me and I actually shook my head. 

“I have been told recently by multiple people that my eating habits are in dire need of being fixed. So actually just give me a minute because I don’t actually know what in the world is in here.” My dad had organized the menu filling it to the brim with all my favorite foods and the fact that he cared so much to organize everything in here by person meant a lot to me. Even Jeremy had his own section and seeing the smile on my boyfriends face meant a lot to me. 

“I always thought that you were way too skinny for your age. Your just like your father in that regard, I have told him hundreds of times to set an alarm or tell Jarvis to kick him out of the garage when he needs to eat.” I smiled through my teeth at the woman so obviously infatuated with my father just praying that he had never slept with her. I pointed to what I wanted and she wrote it down, my favorite chocolate chip pancakes that he used to make me since that was the only thing that he knew how to cook with scrambled eggs substituting the bacon for fruit.

“You still on that vegetarian kick? I would have thought that you would have grown up and learned to eat real food.” I hung on tight to the edge of the table to keep myself from losing my temper. 

“Actually Jennifer, vegetarians are proven to live longer and be healthier than those who eat meat for every meal. Since she stopped eating meat at six years old I’ve seen Abby get happier generally and she was never the biggest fan of meat anyways.” Pepper argued shutting her up for the moment as Elliot and Jeremy just looked at her as if they couldn’t believe what was happening. She took everyone else’s orders before leaving in a huff and I laughed to myself at just the sheer amount of snark that Pepper had on her shoulder. 

“Damn, okay lesson learned today, don’t make Pepper Potts angry by saying obscene and outrageous things got it. I was just about to say something along those lines so up top!!” I laughed at just how much Elliot and Pepper were already getting along having only met a couple of times. 

“In all seriousness, I’m proud that you’re finally listening to the people around you since we’re usually right.” Jeremy told me and I smiled at him kissing his cheek as his ears turned a light pink. 

“Alright Elliot, what is your favorite cult movie? Mine is Rocky Horror and her’s is the same thing but we always ask these questions to new friends and in this case new boyfriends.” Jeremy asked him leaning back and sipping at my smoothie as I smacked his hand to try and get it back but eventually giving up and sighing. 

“I’ve got to say that while I love that movie my favorite is the aforementioned Big Lebowski, that’s pretty much my long day movie where I feel like shit and I just want to watch something to get a lot of laughs out of it. I have that entire movie memorized backwards, forwards and every other way.” I smiled at my boyfriend sending him this look of sheer sympathy because I’ve had days like that. 

“That would be my answer probably too and I’ve been trying to get Tony to let me show it to Abby but he’s still so overprotective over her that he won’t let me come within a five mile radius with that movie in hand. He’s the best boss that I could ever ask for but sometimes he needs to chill on the overprotectiveness of you Abby.” I nodded my head fully agreeing with Happy in this situation because he wasn’t wrong not at all. 

“You’re telling me, I basically had to beg him to let me choose where I went to college. I love him more than anything in the entire world don’t get me wrong he’s done so much for me over the years but sometimes I hate him when he does things like that. The fact that he would never let me date Jeremy is something that I would never forgive him for the longest time. It’s that part of me that’s dreading his return since I know he’s going to have words to say to me.” I pushed up my glasses and smiled out the window as we took to the skies. Keaton was actually a really great pilot as this was the smoothest take off in probably the history of Starkplanes. 

“He was only trying to look out for you honey. He loves you so much and even if his reasons for not letting you live your own life you see as him being controlling it was more the fact that you were growing up way too fast for him to keep up with.” Pepper reasoned as our drinks came and we all clinked them together with small smiles around the booth. 

“He grew up the same way so I don’t really see the point in trying to keep me here at home. I’m glad that I left and went to further my education at MIT because it showed me that I could function without his legacy staring me in the face. Now I have Obadiah breathing down my neck and that’s just about as bad. Somehow he found out that I got the gig and now he’s threatening to cut me off from my founding for the millionth time. Dad was always able to stop him but now that he has free regin over everything he’s acting like king of the freaking world.” I huffed a breath of indignation towards my dad’s business partner and Jeremy just leaned his head onto my shoulder. 

“Don’t let him get to you love, once he’s done that then he wins this round. Rob must have told him to mock him because honestly doesn’t that sound just like him?” I nodded my head because it wouldn’t surprise me at all and I did love the fact that he was always helping me fight my battles. At the same time though, I could have crossed that bridge when I got to it. 

“He clearly loves you and I’m glad that you two are hanging out together a lot more now than you were before you left for college. I think that he was Tony’s favorite of that troupe of actors and I can’t really blame him, his name is infamous with laughter in our family.” Happy mentioned and I nodded my head since he was the one who first showed me Animaniacs at six years old and from that moment on it was a life changing experience. 

“I still think that you should talk to Carolyn a bit more than you do already. She really likes you Abby and I think that you put Tom and Doug ahead of her.” Pepper warned me and I sighed deeply not wanting to discuss one of my favorite female voice actresses. 

“I know I know, I should really call her more often or just text her. I just always feel so weird doing it, maybe it’s because of all the characters as a little girl I idolized Sandy the most since she was a female scientist that’s what I wanted to be. I mean no offense to her I love her you know that I do but I never know what to talk about with her. With Tom, Doug and Rob even I was able to let go of the fact that I idolize them but with her that just never really happened.” I said quietly not really wanting to talk about my friendship with the female actress that I had spent a decent portion of my childhood looking up to.

“I think that’s actually really sweet, when we met up with her yesterday and watched her in the booth I could see little Abby looking at her with stars in her eyes. I think that she was just never really able to bridge that gap like with the males.” Elliot put his own opinion into the mixture and I nodded my head at him giving him that full access to that part of my brain. 

“He’s absolutely right, it’s crazy and I know that it sounds childish but it’s the truth. For the strangest reason I still see her as this untouchable being and I think that’s what keeps me from talking to her more often. Sandy means so much to me as both a female and now with my doctorate since she was pre Donatello for me even. She was the first female character for me to be actually highly intelligent, showing off her strengths instead of just being a wet blanket for the main character to walk all over. She knows what she wants and Carolyn is much of the same way.” I pushed a lock of brown hair behind my ear as Jeremy played with the ends of the waves that were there. 

“I feel like if she ever met Vic or J and somehow got their numbers it would be the same thing. She’s good at talking with people and she does love her voice acting friends but she’s also really shy around new people and those that she admires.” Jeremy noted and I blushed when he kissed my nose and then my lips gently. 

"About that you're going to kill me for this... I kind of already met them... As well as Ian Sinclair and Micha Soulsod a few months back. Remember how when I graduated and all Rob gave me was this envelope and everyone assumed that it was a check? It actually wasn't at all it was tickets to Florida Anime Con where they were all going to be and he wanted to go with me since he almost never went just for fun and he had passes to the green room as well since he's Rob Paulsen. It was probably the most amazing weekend of my life just getting to talk about their craft individually and learning more about them. Michael Tatum was really nice to me and taught me a lot about getting into character since here I'll just show you." I pulled out my phone to show him the image of me doing Hetalia with Michael since it was his idea to do the show him to fight France. It was basically him just smacking me in the head and me yelling at him that he was an ass. 

“She went through the biggest kick with that show and she would show it to anybody who asked about it. Didn’t Doug show that to you originally?” Happy asked me and I nodded my head as Pepper just started to laugh at me. 

“They have always had that father daughter bond ever since she was a little girl. He’s done just about everything with her, it was kind of sweet. He and his wife couldn’t have kids so when he met Abby it was like instant I love this girl. Rob was much the same way and I’ll never forget what they did for your sixteenth birthday.” Pepper reminded me and Elliot turned to look at me in the middle of the cuddle that we were currently in. 

“What did they do?” He asked me and I pushed a lock of hair behind my ear with a small smile at the memory.

“Rob got me tickets to Disneyland for a couple of days with him and Doug. It was just the three of us hanging out together, riding rides, meeting famous characters that inspired me, it was great. That was when Rob bought me these and Doug got me the painting that I keep in my skateboard room. It’s of Belle and the Beast in that famous dance sequence signed by Paige O’Hara she made it. I’ve been meaning to move it to a different room like if I ever make a music room for me or something like that.” I told her and he gently spun around my favorite earrings with a small smile.

"I can't believe that you went to a con and didn't even tell me about it. I would have killed to go with you." Jeremy said over dramatically and I laughed at my boyfriend. 

"I wanted to do this one thing for me. You would have loved Vic probably since this was before the accusations started coming his way. I still have no clue as to what I want to believe it's such a mess." I sighed deeply thinking about how much I had looked up to the previous anime voice actor who's career was pretty much over no matter how you looked at it. 

“I think that was her favorite birthday other than her thirteenth, they had a ton of fun and took a bunch of pictures. I’m still surprised that Tony let her go with them for the week of her birthday.” I laughed at Jeremy as Jennifer came back with all of our food and I scoffed when I saw that she had put bacon on the side instead of fruit like I asked. I just pushed that over to Happy with a grimace as he ate it and I gagged playfully. 

“You have enough fruit in that smoothie, I think that you’re becoming one yourself. It’s good for you but in moderation.” Elliot seemed to have enough of that and looked up at her. 

“Excuse me? Are you her mother? I didn’t think so, if she wants to be vegetarian than let her be the way that she wants to. I think that anybody would be if they had to witness what she did and she’s an animal lover. I think that it’s not only highly admirable that she thinks that way and decided for herself at six that she no longer wants to eat meat. I think that the most amazing thing about her is how much she clearly loves everybody in her life and the fact that she gives her dog veggie food too because she wants to know all the ingredients that are in there is adorable.” Elliot defended and watched as Jenny just looked at her with this shock and horror that she was being spoken to in this light.

“If I hear one more peep out of you I will insure that by the time Tony gets back one of the first things that he does is have you fired.” Pepper threatened a look of sheer death in her eyes as I smiled at my actual mother figure. 

“I’m only trying to make sure that the daughter of my employer is as healthy as she can be…” She tried to protest but I just rolled my eyes at her with a small scowl on my face. 

“If you really did care about me you would have made sure that I ate more at home. But you don’t and you just act like you do so you can keep your job. I think that’s about enough out of her what do you think Jeremy.” He had gotten vegetarian food as well something that warmed my heart as I saw Elliot had done the same thing. Jennifer just scoffed rolling her eyes and gave everyone else the rest of their food.   
“I’ll make sure that she’s gone, hell I’m putting it on his todo list at the very top.” I laughed as Pepper took out her phone putting it at the top of my dad’s fake todo list that he had started because I loved lists and reasoning. 

“He made that because I have an obsession with lists and reasoning. It started off as a joke but over time it became something that actually helped him with his projects for work. Okay Elliot, if you could choose your own major and you couldn’t get the doctorate in engineering and technology because let me tell you from experience it’s hella hard what would you do?” I smiled at my boyfriend as he thought about it for a moment as I cut into my pancakes that were not surprisingly burnt. She always burned my food I joked on purpose because she never liked me. 

“I think that if it were up to me I would want to be a doctor of astrophysics I’ve always been obsessed with the planets and the stars in the sky. My dad thinks that it’s just all bull but I love it.” He said wistfully and I gave one of my pancakes to Jeremy because he knew that I didn’t like them. 

“What did she do to them this time? I say that we just get you something when we land.” Pepper asked me trying a bite from one of the top ones sticking her tongue out when she realized just how burnt it was. 

“Yeah that’s nasty as hell, he makes them way better it’s the only thing that he can make and do well.” She affirmed and I laughed at her finishing the one on the top of the plate. I heard my phone buzz and I reached down to check and see who had texted me and it was actually Josh.

 _Josh: I hope that you are actually eating a good breakfast and not just one of those smoothie’s. As good as they probably are for you it’s not solid food. I know I’m probably mother hening you or something and I don’t know you that well yet but just eat something._ I smiled at my new friend taking a picture of what I was eating for breakfast on the plane. 

_Me: The pancakes are burnt to a crisp and nasty as hell but I’m eating them all the same. The scrambled eggs are too runny but I’m used to this with the chef on staff today. Jeremy looks like he wants to make the food switch which would work out way better for me since he got the same thing but not burnt to a crisp or too runny. And people call me picky with food, to which I’m not it’s just you’d expect better since my dad hired her._ I sent the text back right as my boyfriend swapped my plate with his and just gave me a kiss on the cheek. 

“So I’m guessing that your favorite country in Hetalia other than France is probably Italy right? He was my favorite, both North and South though I wish that they could’ve done a bit more with Romano since he was so funny.” I laughed at the memory that me and Jeremy were probably both thinking though he did the accent a bit better than me.

“He was my personal favorite other than Switzerland and Canada but she loves them too mostly because they made her laugh and personally…” He trailed off leaning over me to whisper something so that I couldn’t hear him. 

“What did you just tell him? Did you just tell him that I act like Northern Italy because I don’t.” I huffed and he only smirked at me poking my cheek gently to try and mess with me as my phone buzzed and I reached down to see what he had wanted from me. 

_Josh: YUCK!! That’s so nasty ugh, nobody in their right mind would eat that and I hope that Jeremy did switch with you. I’m sorry that you’re not having the best of mornings though I’m glad that you’re doing better. What is the one other cartoon going on right now that you want to be a part of?_ He asked me and I thought about it for a moment before sending my text.

 _Me: If I could, I’d want to be a Gem on Steven Universe. It means the world to me right now especially as a way to communicate to kids it’s okay to have feelings for those that are the same gender even if they say that they have no gender. I’d want to be a Silver Diamond here a little bit of visual for your pleasure, silver, platinum and gold._ I sent him a sketch that I had made around the time that I really started to watch the show and spread the syrup on my pancakes taking a bite and sighing. 

“Now this is how you do some chocolate pancakes, not whatever the hell she did to mine. Sorry about that Jere-Bear.” I apologized to him and he just gave me a sugary sweet kiss to my lips gently. 

“It’s alright love, I can deal with one bad breakfast as long as you are getting a healthy amount of calories into your body.” He told me and Elliot drew small circles into my hands. 

“You three are adorable, I think that Tony will fully support the three of you as long as he gets to see what the three of you mean to each other. He’s going to probably some things that he’ll regret because he has a bit of a brain to mouth filter problem but he always means well.” Happy told the three of us as I swallowed the bit that I had taken of the strawberry on top. 

“I believe so too, I’ve only been working for him for around ten years once he went back to work for good and had to have somebody make sure that he managed his time between his work and his child. Basically I was his glorified babysitter for both him and the actual child. Not that I’m complaining this is the best job that I’ve ever had both pay wise and being around amazing people. He can be a good man it’s just he usually talks first and regrets it later.” Pepper reminded them and I laughed taking the other half of the strawberry and dipping it in the whip cream before starting to eat the rest of the three pancakes and the scrambled eggs. 

“Alright this is when I tap out ladies and gents. Is it nap time yet?” I asked them jokingly hearing my phone buzz again and thinking that it was Josh as Jeremy leaned over my shoulder.

 _Josh: I think that you would be absolutely amazing on that show!! Especially if they write you a song as any one of those characters, maybe help Pearl get over her love of Rose? Isn’t she your favorite? I can totally see that since you act a lot like her in real life. You both keep a lot of your emotions to yourself and I can see that while you’re getting better at talking to people about what you’re feeling it’s still hard. It’s hard for a lot of people but for people who don’t understand how they feel especially._ I smiled at the fact that he was still able to talk to me even though I was leaving for a little while. 

“What are you two talking about?” Elliot leaned over my shoulder reading the conversation that I was having with the actor that I would probably be spending a lot of time with over the coming weeks. 

“You would be absolutely astounding on that show baby!! I mean it’s so different from every other cartoon and animated anything that’s ever been created. I would totes ship Pearl with another girl who isn’t a Rose lookalike and actually her own person but hear me out, instead of being a ballerina what about an ice skater since they are very similar hobbies.” I nodded my head taking out my phone and writing all of this down since we were on an airplane and that would throw my hand off balance. 

“I think that she would look beautiful in a light baby blue dress with white leggings. I think that her hair would be a long silver color sort of like Aisling’s from Secret Of Kells. It’s an animated film that she really loves from Ireland, we always get into this debate about which one is better, Song Of The Sea which is my personal favorite and Secret Of Kells because she loves Brother Aidan. You know that closed eyed smile that she always does, that’s where she stole it from little nod to his character.” Jeremy gave her a bit more of the backstory of my character that we were inventing and I smiled to myself writing all of this down in a bulleted list.

“I think that she should be an old sparring partner for Pearl. Like the only person who knows all the things that she buries and doesn’t talk about. That would be just beautiful.” Pepper argued and I wrote that down easily taking everything that they were saying and processing it. 

“She would be shy once she first gets to Earth being absolutely clueless about anything and everything no matter what. But, overtime she would grow to love Stephen like a baby brother and grow closer to all the other gems as a result. She would be cute and have a slight brain to mouth problem most of the time being blunter than the swords she uses. All of them are really brutally honest but I feel like she would have the worst and not even try to cover her emotions up.” I smiled a Happy gave his own recommendations adding them to the list that was slowly but surely adding up.

“I’m adding intricate braids as more of a side thing since as much as I love Amethyst's crazy hair I want to make her different. She would also be smaller than Pearl I’m making that a thing since I can and I’m her creator. And for the record Kells is so much better I don’t see why we even continue having this never ending debate.” I argued against him and he put his arm around my shoulders tucking me into his side gently. 

“Why don’t we show them to Elliot and then he can make the decision once we get back home?” He offered up his alternative to the situation and I knew just by looking at him that my other boyfriend would just fall in love with my favorite of the two. 

“I saw that movie when it first started going to film competitions over here and it just an instant favorite of mine. I love it’s characters, it’s animation, it’s storyline and plot development. The only grip that I have about it is that Song Of The Sea does have a clear more concrete ending. Kells just sort of stops and leaves a lot of questions unanswered.” Elliot listened as I talked about the film that I truly did love more than anything else in the world. It had been one of my favorite films pretty much all throughout college and high school. 

“Her’s has more the fantasy element while mine is more centered upon family and how to deal with that. That sometimes families are broken and they can’t be fixed that easily. I think she often feels like Brother Aidan and that’s why she loves his personality so much.” I laughed at Jeremy leaning back and finishing the last of my smoothie that was in the cup. 

“I’ve always been a sucker for fantasy books and movies. Plus I relate to a lot of what Aidan has to go through with the whole dealing with this responsibility of something that is out of your control but also having a massively adorable childlike sense of wonder. Hell one of my favorite stories is Lord Of The Rings and I read it just about every other year to stay current on it even though I know everything that happens. The books are so much better than the movies fight me.” I said to my party and they all laughed at me as I saw Pepper fiddle with something in her bag. 

“This trip was kind of short notice but I was able to get something for the three of you to do together that Abby has always wanted to do since this is one of her favorite Disney movies even if she acts like it’s overrated.” She gave each one of us an envelope to open and I saw front row tickets to Frozen the Broadway production. 

“Oh no way?! That’s soo cool, I couldn’t get my hands on this before my birthday happened. Thank you Pep though this is wholly unnecessary. I love you so much!!” I thanked the woman who had became like my mother and saw that there was one other thing towards the back there. It was tickets to the Phantom Of The Opera also front row one of Elliot’s favorite shows.

“And it’s official, you’re like the parents that I never got have. Pepper is best mom figure.” I laughed at Elliot as Jeremy just kissed his boyfriend’s cheek somewhat awkwardly since I had to bend down a little bit. 

“It’s all good over here, I’m not the biggest theater fan but it’s always worth it to see Abby’s eyes light up when she sees a cast album that she’s burned through multiple times come to life before her very eyes. The only reason why there isn’t Mean Girls tics in there is because she’s already seen it.” Jeremy squeezed my hands and I smiled at him. 

“I think that my favorite show that I’ve ever seen multiple times is Spongebob. It was so amazing and all the actors portrayed those iconic characters so well. I could praise Wesley Taylor to the highest heavens since I already loved him on Smash back when that was a thing. I love Christian Borle alright I don’t know why really, he helped me kind of come into my own quirky self.” I smiled to myself at the fact that I was surrounded by all my friends and people that I loved in my life. 

“I remember Tony used to tease her so much whenever that show was on because he thought that it was just another ridiculous reality show about Broadway musicals. Wasn’t the only reason you kept watching that train wreck was because you loved that actor so much?” I nodded my head with a small sigh at the thoughts of how that show had taken the long dive off the short cliff.

“Yeah that was pretty much the reasons why I stuck with it. The music was favorable but sometimes the writing on that show would just leave me scratching my head and thinking are you guys sure that you know what you’re doing over there. I loved a lot of those characters and some were even extremely relatable. Tom was, so was Kyle and I thought that there relationship was really sweet even if it didn’t last all that long. That’s when I think I was officially done with that show, when what happened to Kyle finally did happen and it left me a broken shell of a person. I was thirteen maybe when that show came out and I just started bawling at the end of it and my dad comes up from the garage. I told him they killed Kyle and all he did was quote South Park.” I laughed at the memory all the same taking the last couple sips from my water cup that I had been given. 

“I remember that and when you first saw that Andy Mientus had spiked teeth your eyes lit up like these little tiny stars. Her teeth have never been perfect even though she has all of them she also has these little ones that almost look like spikes. I thought that it was adorable when she was a little girl.” I laughed at Jeremy playing with one of the teeth that he mentioned with my tongue. 

“It’s true, I have this massive love for Andy he’s really talented and it helped me to accept the fact that my teeth weren’t perfect. And that there wasn’t a whole lot that I could do about it.” I mentioned showing her a picture of Andy and taking out my playbill booklet that always went with me whenever I traveled to New York. I took out my Once On This Island one and smiled when I saw all the signatures for the popular actors and actresses.

“Oh that’s amazing, can I see some of these?” Elliot asked me and I nodded my head as he started flipping through all of them starting with the Spongebob one that had little notes from all the actors since I spent a decent amount of time talking to all of them. 

“She’s been collecting those since Happy first showed her Singin’ In The Rain when she was five years old, at least that’s how Tony tells that story. It was before me so the only thing that I know is that it happened and it changed her life.” I remembered that day still pretty vividly as my dad was still trying to get me caught up with the modern pop culture and Happy recommended showing me some classics as well which led to me watching Singin’ In The Rain and Casablanca when I was five. 

“Abby comes to me the next day and tells me that she wants to learn dance but not tap that she wanted to study ballet. Of course Tony being the sucker for his daughter that he was he agreed and she was actually really good. She moved up the ranks until eventually she got so good that they ran out of things to teach her and she moved onto martial arts.” Happy told his side of the story and I showed my boyfriend evidence that I had indeed taken dance classes.

“Awwww you were so adorable I can totally see you being amazing at dance lessons. Your usually really graceful but you can also do skateboarding and surfing that’s so badass. I think that it’s amazing that you have all these different hobbies that you have in your spare time.” Elliot kissed my cheek reaching for my Wicked one next and I smiled softly because that was probably my favorite one for the name that was on the front of it in black sharpie. 

“I got to meet him when I saw Once On This Island, he was there waiting for his husband Michael Arden who was the director of that show to come out of the stage door. It meant the world to me to actually get to talk to him and tell him how much Kyle meant to me growing up. You wouldn’t think that he would but he changed the way that I thought about my own life since I was just starting to really get into the community theater scene and had my first major role. I might have been Belle in a production of Beauty And The Beast here and they gave me brown eye contacts.” I showed her photographic evidence of me at thirteen in a production of Beauty And The Beast. 

“Holy shit, you were so good in that role let me tell you something right there. If anybody was ever meant to play Belle it would be Abby. She totally transformed into that character and I thought that she was beautiful. If I hadn’t been in love with her for years already that would have been the moment.” Elliot continued to flip through my phone until he came across a video. 

“You play the piano too?! I thought that you only played guitar!! That’s so amazing that you know two instruments instead of just one.” I hadn’t known which video that my boyfriend came across until I heard the familiar piano tones of I Heard Your Voice In A Dream from the second season of Smash. 

“Oh good lord, let’s just get this torment over with, I had a big huge massive problem okay? If that wasn’t obvious enough that should make it blarling in your face.” I sighed thumbing my fingers together as I looked out the window and saw all the things that were passing us by in the skies. Mostly just clouds but they were so beautiful and I loved being in the airplanes so much even though the takeoffs and landings were a little bit anxiety inducing. 

“I think that you’re beautiful playing the piano and singing something that clearly spoke to you on a very personal level.” I smiled at Elliot for not making fun of me and Jeremy only kissed my cheek even though his lips were covered in the powdered sugar that was dusted over my pancakes. I playfully batted his hand away trying to clean up the mess that he made while everyone else just laughed at me.

“It’s amazing that she can keep track of all these hobbies and still be able to all these things. It was like every other month she was picking up a new instrument or had mastered a new maneuver on her skateboard. You know the move that they use in Rise? That was inspired by her classic quad flip on the board here I’ll show it’s nuts.” Jeremy pulled out his phone and I saw the image that was there that warmed my heart. It was of me, him and Elliot in front of Warner Brothers Studios when they lifted me onto their shoulders. We almost fell over but thankfully Rob was the spotter on the other end that we didn’t even need. He showed her the video that he was talking about that Rob probably showed to the animators to recreate. 

“It’s one of the most dangerous things that anybody can do on a skateboard, I remember Tony nearly flipping out when he first saw her trying to master it one day after school. He insisted that if she practice it that she wear padding.” I laughed at Pepper’s story and nodded my head perfectly remembering the interactions between my dad and me. 

“Oh my god this, okay so bit of background as you’ve probably figured out little miss sunshine over here had a problem with Smash. Well if you were to ask her what her favorite song was what would she tell you?” I sighed deeply knowing what my answer was because it was the song that always made me weep and cry like a damn baby. 

“It’s a toss up between The Last Goodbye which is Kyle’s song that he has or The Love I Meant To Say. Why asking? Please tell me you’re not going to play my version of the song he’ll see me ugly cry and it’s not a pretty picture.” I begged Jeremy but he started to play both of those songs back to back which I remembered I had to do for music class back in high school. We all had to play two songs that made us emotional whether for a good way or a bad one.

“I was the only one to play sad songs it was actually rather funny. Like you had songs that were happy and upbeat and than you just got me crying like a baby.” Elliot awed at me as he watched me play the two songs that spoke the most to me out of a whole lineup of different various songs. 

“That’s not true, didn’t Nikki play a song for her dead grandmother?” Jeremy reminded me of he slightly scene girl that I had sort of became friends with but the distance between us and her being a year younger than me split us apart. Besides Katie had hated her more than life itself. 

“I sort of forgot about her what ever happened to you two Abby? I liked her style she didn’t take any nonsense and I think that’s admirable.” Pepper asked me and I sighed deeply wanting to just put everything behind me. 

“We lost touch while I was away at MIT, and then once I came back I guess I got so busy with the car last summer and spending time with her just slipped my mind. I know I’m a horrible best friend the worst one imaginable make fun of me please love of everything.” I hung my head in shame slightly because I was thoroughly humiliated by the fact that Jeremy was showing him all these embarrassing things that had happened before we even met. 

“I think that it’s sweet that you did something like this. It’s what I expected for you to do since you love musical theater and television shows. Is that the only live actions show you’ve ever been obsessed with?” I shook my head showing him my cosplay that me and my dad did when I was a little girl and we were Mork and Mindy. 

“Oh my god that’s the most precious thing that I think I’m dying…” Elliot stuck his tongue out and I showed the image to Pepper and Happy. They were working with my father back then so I thought that they would have easily remembered that Halloween. Obadiah nearly killed my dad for dressing up with me since that was my first Halloween together. 

“I do remember that actually I thought that you two were the cutest thing when he would imitate him going nano nano and you would just laugh at him. I thought that it was so sweet that you two would get along like you two were blood related and he would always indulge your love of cartoons.” Happy remembered and I smiled at my oldest friend as Pepper looked at the image with a sad smile on her face. 

“He loved that costume on you so much he thought that you were the cutest thing. With your hair in pigtails and the bright pink dress with the face makeup even though most people had no idea what you were supposed to be you did and you would tell them with pride that you were Mindy. That was her favorite show other than Spongebob for the longest time this was before Teen Titans arrived on her radar. Halloween is Tony’s favorite holiday to celebrate with her other than her birthday and Christmas. It’s hard that he’s going to miss her birthday this year…” She said sadly and I looked up at her squeezing her hand knowing exactly how she felt about this entire scenario.

“I know but you also know how Rob gets about my birthday and while I would love to just let it pass me by this year in his eyes eighteen is a big number. I love him don’t get me wrong, he’s like my second father figure and I wouldn’t trade him for anybody in the entire world. It’s just sometimes we don’t see eye to eye about people interactions. In his opinion I spend way too much time alone for it to be humanly acceptable. It’ll be fun though so I’m excited. I’ll get to be around my new coworkers they’re pretty fantastic. Also John DiMaggio confirmed that he will indeed be there so I’m sure that these two are excited about that. Stephen said that he would try but he’s not doing so hot right now so I wouldn’t count on it. I had a bit of an emotional breakdown yesterday at the studios when he told me that he probably wouldn’t make it through the year.” Pepper gasped putting a hand over her mouth and Happy just sighed deeply. He and Stephen became solid friends as the years went on since we first met at my birthday party. 

“I’m sorry Abby, that’s just awful but you had to have seen it coming. It’s ALS and there’s nothing that we can do to stop or cure it. It’s not like Rob’s throat cancer that got cured but it might come back. You need to be prepared emotionally to lose them eventually since Rob is getting on in years.” Happy warned me and I knew that the man I had grown up with was right and Elliot just moved the hair out of my eyes. 

“It’ll all be okay Abby alright? You just need to take things day by day and everything will be fine. I know how much Stephen Hillenburg meant to you but he’s ready to pass on. I don’t want you to just fall off the grid because of this travesty okay? We can help you so you just need to ask for it.” I felt the plane jerk a little bit and knew that we were preparing for landing already after only a couple of hours since we had taken a faster route to get there. I took a deep breath getting out my Beast Boy plush and clutching him tightly since I hated landing probably the most even as the New York City images started to pop out of the airplane window. I knew that I would be alright but I was still nervous about this whole thing. I had never thought that I would actually be on live television before today but the thought was terrifying. I watched as the plane touched the ground and I took a deep breath as we skidded to a stop and I dusted off my leggings from sitting for the last three hours. 

“Alright Abby, we’ll meet you at the hotel okay? Joan said that she would meet you here so that you two could talk and go over the script. Looks like you two are stuck with boring old me for the time being.” Pepper joked and I got sugary kisses from both of my boyfriends before they left as I slung my bag over my shoulder and grabbed my rolling luggage from up above taking my Beast Boy plushie by the hand as I left the plane waving to Keaton as I left. I saw what had to be Joan as an old graying woman who still had a bright smile on her face and a love for life.

“You must be Abigail Stark, you look just like how your father described you to me. Although the picture that he showed me was many years old it looked like you haven’t aged a day.” I shook the older woman’s hand with a small smile on my face as I nervously swallowed. 

“It’s really nice to finally meet you Joan. I appreciate all the work that you have done for Sesame Street. Don’t tell me, he showed you the picture of me in Abby Cadabby costume?” I asked her with a raised eyebrow and she just laughed at me shaking her head. 

“It was a little bit later than that, when you were Raven in a show called Teen Titans. That was a little bit past my time for children’s programming so I have really no idea what it was from but I could see that you were happy to be dressed up as her.” I smiled at her as she led me to the limo that she had sent to pick me up and I settled down into my seat. I settled my Beast Boy plush into my lap snagging a water bottle so that I could rehydrate. 

“Oh geez it had to be that picture, that’s my favorite cartoon of all time. I grew up with it and the moment that I first saw it when I was six it was life changing. It taught me so much about being different and being proud of it and showed me that my differences just made a stronger person all together. My favorite hero on the show was different from all the others that he worked with since he could change into any animal possible but he had self loathing because he wasn't the smartest on the team. He’s actually kind of an idiot not that it’s a bad thing because he was such a strong and funny character. He also showed me that it was okay to not love meat since I’ve been vegetarian since I was six as well.” I pushed a lock of hair behind my ear as the elder lady sat across from me taking a water bottle as well.

“I think that’s an amazing quality to have, we can’t all have brains but the fact that he is able to move past that and instead make his other attributes known is a rather intriguing quality for a children’s show. Really? That’s an outstanding feat right there that you haven’t cracked in over ten years. I think that it’s fascinating to listen to you talk about cartoons that you grew up with. And you’re going to be on Rise Of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Pepper told me about that.” I nodded my head excitedly sending a text to Rob that my plane had landed. 

_Me: My plane has landed thankfully on the oh so safe ground. I don’t think I’ve mentioned how much I hate flying have I?_

“Yes I am, sorry texting an old friend of mine who wanted me to when I finally landed. I’ve been close with him for many years since I was ten and went to the Nickelodeon studios probably my best birthday ever. I got to meet so many of my favorite voice actors and creators that year that I’m really good friends with now that I’m older. People like Tom Kenny, Rob Paulsen the man that I just texted, Doug Lawrence the voice of Plankton who gave me this shirt, Ciro Neili original creator of Teen Titans my favorite cartoon and Stephen Hillenburg who made Spongebob a possibility.” I explained to her where I had gotten my favorite shirt that I happened to be wearing and she only smiled at me as I told my favorite moments.

“It sounds like you have led quite the life these past eight years, doing community theater, school theater and college all in eight years graduating from both early and getting your doctorate. I’m surprised that you were able to do all of those things and still maintain a healthy social life.” I laughed at her leaning my head back against the plush seats of the limo. 

“Rob will tell you that I hardly even have a social life if at all. I’m shy and I’m often anxious about bad things happening to me when I go outside. At least I used to be that way before I made one of my closest friends even though I’ve only recently met him. His name is Greg Cipes, he’s the one who taught me about meditation and finding that center of gravity. He also voiced this little guy here and he gave me this amazing gift basket that I loved. I want to show children who have a similar problem just how simple and effective mediation for is for people like me. I do it every morning on the beach in Venice and I’ll just sit there and talk with Greg for the first part of my morning while my dog Belle plays with his dog Wingman D. Incase you were wondering where the random teachings of mediation and the whole I love my life was coming from it was from him and I wanted to show that with the entire world to surprise him. He’s going to be watching it with the homeless people that stay around him and all the people in the neighborhood. It astounds me what an amazing person he is and not only that but how alike we really are. I would do the same thing if I were in his shoes not because of my father but because I believed that it was the right thing to do. Sorry I’m talking about this a lot I take a lot of my friendships that I do have really personally.” I apologized hearing my phone buzz and just glancing down at it seeing that it was from Rob and that I had never texted Josh back. 

“Crap sorry just gotta do this one last thing, the man that I’m going to be voicing with in the booth for Rise texted me on the plane and I read it but got too busy to text him back.” I apologized and Joan just laughed at me openly as I texted back my friend. 

_Me: Sorry about not texting you back until now, I actually started designing her already and that’s kind of what happened. Everybody spotted out ideas_ _for what she could look like and this is what became of her. This is what we all came up with I actually really love her. She would be a ton of fun for me to play especially if I got to work off of Pearl since she is my favorite character not like that’s a secret for anybody._ I sent the text and sighed deeply rubbing my temples and trying to calm myself down from the exertion of flying. 

“It is quite alright, I understand that you are going through a lot right now and wanting to text your coworker is perfectly fine. I can tell that whoever these people are that they mean a lot to you as a person and that’s something truly special. If you can love somebody that openly and want to make them happy too that’s the most important thing.” Joan complimented me and I hugged my plushie tighter due to the fact that I was a little bit nervous.

“They are extremely important to me, I couldn’t ask for a better second family. Voice acting as a career was something that I’ve been interested in since I was a little girl and first discovered that it was actually a career opportunity that some people did. Ever since I was six years old I’ve dreamed about standing amongst Rob Paulsen, Tom Kenny, Greg Cipes, Doug Lawrence and so many other actors that helped me become who I am today. I’m sorry you probably want to talk more about scenes and scripts right?” I asked her realizing I was talking far more than was actually necessary about the same things. 

“It’s quite alright, we do need to talk a little bit about what we want you doing. Did you bring any instruments with you?” I nodded my head getting out my acoustic guitar that I kept on my person pretty much at all times. 

“Yes I did, this guitar has been with me since I was ten years old. Stephen Hillenburg himself hand painted it for me after buying it. It has jellyfish and the flowers that he made so iconic.” I showed it to her and she only took the gift opening up the case and smiling at it. 

“This is a really heartwarming gift, you should be very proud of it. I want you to do a song about what it’s like to be in your shoes especially right now. We’ve already written it all out for you.” She told me and I took the script that she had given to me a nervous shiver running down my spine. 

“You can sing right? Tony told me that you could, if you can’t then I’m sorry for the miscommunication. I should have asked first.” I looked down at my sneakers that I was currently wearing feeling anxiety in waves start creeping up my body. 

“I-I-It’s not that I can’t sing, it’s that I’m really self conscious about it. It’s hard for to even sing in the car sometimes and usually Rob or whoever is driving with me has to beg me to sing with them. All of them love my singing voice but it always makes me super nervous to use it.” I admitted to her and she gave me back the guitar as I took a sip of water trying to calm myself down. 

“Why don’t you play something for me right now? What’s the song that Mr. Hillenburg has asked you to play at his funeral?” I was surprised that she even knew who Stephen was but I did as she said anyways and the strings instantly did what I wanted them to. 

_“Ocean man, take me by the hand lead me to the land that you understand. Ocean man, the voyage to the corner of the globe is a real trip. Ocean man, the crust of a tan man impeded by the sand soaking up the thirst of the land. Ocean man, can you see through the water of amazement at the Oberman? Ocean man, the crust is elusive when it casts forth to the childlike man. Ocean man, the sequence of a life force braised in the sand soaking up the thirst of the land ocean man. Ocean man, ocean man, ocean man, ocean man. Ocean man, take me by the hand lead me to the land that you understand. Ocean man, the voyage to the corner of the globe is a real trip (trip, trip, trip, trip, trip). Ocean man, the crust of a tan man impeded by the sand soaking up the thirst of the land. Ocean man, can you see through the water of amazement, at the Oberman? Ocean man the crust is elusive when it casts forth to the childlike man. Ocean man, the sequence of a life force braised in the sand soaking up the thirst of the land, ocean man.”_ I had played this song over so many years that it was like a second nature to me to sing all these lyrics that were psychedelic but at the same time meant so much to me even if it was unknown of its true meaning. 

“I think that you have a beautiful singing voice and that you should use it more often. It sounds to me like you just have a little bit of stage fright when it comes to using your voice for what it was meant to do.” Joan noted and I nodded my head shyly with a small smile. 

“I get that a lot from almost everybody in my life, they always tell me how much talent that I have. I love to make music and for hours I’ll sit there and perform with Greg on the beach we’ll just strum out chords. It helps when I’m familiar and comfortable with my favorite material. Ocean Man is one of my favorite songs since I was a really little girl. It meant a lot to me because as a little kid I loved everything that Spongebob stood for obviously. It showed me that it was alright to have an imagination and that it was actually encouraged. As a kid in the orphanage people always told me that I had to be a child or a grown up and that it was impossible for me to be both at the same time. Then I start watching cartoons with my dad and suddenly it was like, okay I can have this humongous imagination and be mature at the same time.” I looked down at my guitar seeing that the writing was still there and it still made my heart just as warm as when I first got it. 

“I say that you give the song a shot tomorrow and I think that you will be great at it. I admire the fact that you can do all these things and that you never even ask any questions. So many of the famous actors that we bring in have these set things that they’re known for but since you’ve never done anything like this before we’re able to start your career. Your dad said that you have an Abby Cadabby? Is she somewhere in your backpack?” I nodded unzipping my favorite Donatello backpack that had pretty much gotten me through college and taking out the stuffed animal in question. 

“She’s right here, I’ve had her since I was a really little girl. See, I have this issue with nightmares. If I don’t have my favorite plushies with me that involves Abby, I have a Donatello and now this little guy here that means the absolute planet to me.” She took the large Abby plush from my hands and looked at her fingering her pigtails on the top of her head. 

“These are really well made, I’m glad that these are the cure for your nightmares. May I see your… what was his name again?” She asked me gesturing to my Beast Boy that was in my lap. 

“His name is technically Garfield Logan but he goes by Beast Boy or BB amongst the Titans. He’s called that because he can change into animal form known to man. My personal favorite is his lemur but he can also do a cat that’s super cute, an incredible dinosaur that’s Greg’s favorite and a pterodactyl.” I told her handing her the stuffed animal and I took back my favorite female muppet from Sesame Street. We pulled up in front of my hotel that I was staying at on the water with my boyfriends and I got out my winter coat from my backpack. 

“I’m so used to the sunshine state that the weather here is freezing my butt off…” I groaned zipping up my hoodie and my jacket while collecting the rest of my stuffed animals. 

“It is very cold up here but at the same time I love seeing the snow in the wintertime at least watching it fall to the ground.” Joan mentioned putting my Beast Boy back into my backpack as I did the same with my Abby Cadabby. I got out of the limo before I was pelted with snowballs on all my sides half of it winding up in my still open backpack that I hadn’t zipped shut yet.

“AH!!” I screamed as my two boyfriends just started laughing at me and I internally cursed their very existence. 

“I can’t believe you two, I just don’t believe it…” I grabbed some of the snow with my bare hands searching through the pockets for my gloves before strapping them on and getting back into action aiming for Elliot’s head so that I could get his perfect hair cold with the snow on the ground. I hit him dead on remembering when I went to the mountains with my dad for one Christmas when he wanted to get out of the mansion and he taught me all he knew about snowball fights.

“Where did you get so good at this?” Happy asked me as he got on my side and so did Pepper. 

“My dad taught me everything that he knew about snowball fights when I was five and we went up to the mountains for my first official Christmas.” I told him aiming for Jeremy’s chest with everything in me. I hit him dead on and he staggered backwards leaving me thinking that he got what deserved for ambushing me like that. Joan just laughed at watched as we all flung snow at each other in an all out war of every man for themselves eventually. Everything was going great until I somehow slipped on black ice that was on the sidewalk and ended up the ground on my back like a turtle. Jeremy rushed to my side since he was the one to throw the snowball that landed me off balance. 

“Oh love, I’m so sorry, are you alright honey?” He ran to me offering me his hand up and I saw his snow kissed cheeks that looked absolutely adorable with his blonde hair covered in snow and glasses that had little water droplets on them. 

“Yeah, I’m fine, I’ll probably have a bruised butt and sides for a little while but other than that it’s all good.” I took his hand and kissed him gently just to let him know that I was okay. 

“Alright wars over ladies and gents we had a piper down and the games are done.” Jeremy told everyone as Elliot rushed to me as I wrapped my arms around him in a tight hug. 

“Are you alright baby? I saw that go down and I should have really warned you that the ice was there.” Elliot as I was quickly learning as just as overprotective over me as Jeremy was not that it was a bad thing but I thought that it was cute. 

“Yeah I’m fine you guys, it just is a little bit sore. I can’t believe that I slipped on black ice I really am an absolute klutz.” I laughed to myself hoping that I hadn’t broken my Starkphone and I took it out of my backpack seeing that it was indeed still intact.

“That was quite the tumble there Abby, I think that’s enough of the fun for this vacation without padding.” Pepper joked trying to sound like my dad and I just laughed at her. 

“Yes mom I’ll wear padding, I’m kidding Pep, I’m fine. It was just a little bit of black ice no harm done I’m not used to having to deal with that.” Jeremy kissed my forehead anyways and put an arm around my shoulders as Elliot took my other hand pressing a kiss to the center of my knuckles.

“I think that you guys should all check into your hotel and then you can walk around the shops and things before your show tonight.” Happy told us and I nodded my head leading the way through the hotel to the front desk.   
“Hi can I help you?” The woman at the front desk asked me and I stood up straight and tall in front of her.

“Yes, I booked a three day two night stay under the name Stark. I have three rooms booked out already.” I told her and she nodded her head as I got out my ID and my debit card in case she needed that.

“Okay, here are your room keys Miss Stark and your checkout time is eleven thirty Sunday morning.” She warned me and I nodded my head stretching my arms above my head. I gave out the items that my friends would all need to get to their rooms and I was excited yet nervous for this expedition. Happy and Pepper held the elevator open for me as I was trailing behind just thinking about how in the world I was going to go on national television and talk about what I was going through right now.

“You’ll be fine Abs, you can do this I believe in you and so does all of your friends back home. You just have to believe in yourself a little bit.” Pepper reminded me and I nodded my head with a shy nervous tick that was twiddling my thumbs together. 

“Are you just now starting to get nervous Abigail Stark? You can do whatever you want to do you just have to believe in yourself. I’ve known you for thirteen years and I know that you can do whatever you put your mind to. Your intelligent, cute, funny, adorable, beautiful and the most incredible person who’s ever come into my life changing it forever.” Jeremy kissed me gently trying to get me to calm down as the elevator dinged and I went into my room with my two boyfriends flopping down onto my bed. I was tired emotionally from all the words that were flowing inside my head and wished that I was able to bring Belle with me onto the airplane. I decided that I would text Greg since he would probably want to know that I made it okay anyways. 

_Me: How’s she doing?? Is it sad that I miss her already? I wasn’t even aware of how much of impact she’s had on my life. I’m kinda freaking out over here and there’s a lot of pressure on me to succeed and I don’t want to let anybody down. I hadn’t really thought that there would be the idea that I would have to sing on national television._ I sent him the text and crossed my ankles together trying to get out of that negative headspace that Greg often told me to do. Freaking out has never done me any good before and I was trying to get better at not over analyzing the hell out of everything. Elliot and Jeremy seemed to be doing their own thing touring the hotel and I was fine with that since I wanted some alone quiet time just to myself. I plugged in my earbuds and put on my white noise app that Greg had thought would help me sleep better and set it to the gentle water setting that I slept to. I heard my phone buzz and thought that it was Greg so I reached down to read what he had sent me. 

_Greg: She’s good, she’s a little bit sad I think because she’s not splashing in the water with Wingman. I think that she misses you just as much as you miss her. Dogs sort of work in that way, I remember the first time I tried to leave Wingman with a friend for a con it didn’t go so well for me either. Why is there a lot of pressure for you to succeed? Who do you have to let down except for yourself?_ Greg had always known exactly what I was thinking but I didn’t know if he knew just how much pressure I was putting on myself for this whole acting thing to work out in the end.

 _Me: Awwwww she’s such a sweetheart, give her lots of kisses for me I miss her so much. I can’t imagine how you got through that con without him it_ _must have been hell. There’s pressure for me to succeed because if I don’t Obadiah will most likely hang that over my head for the rest of my life and tell me that I’m a horrible actress and to just give up on my dreams. I don’t know if I can sing on live television Greg. In fact I highly doubt that I can…._ I know that Rob always told me not to get like that but I hadn’t heard from him since I told him that the plane had landed. I heard my phone buzz actually seeing that it was Jeremy. 

_Jere-bear <3: I know that you probably want to be left alone but I don’t want you to be alone with your thoughts right now. Change your pants and then why don’t you come out with me and Elliot? I don’t know what’s going on with you but maybe if you just talk to us then we’ll understand why you’re feeling the way that you are. _ I had absolutely no clue what I had done to deserve a boy that was so perfect but I changed my pants into regular jeans keeping my sneakers on because I prefer them over my snow boots. I slowly went to the elevator seeing Jeremy holding two coffee cups full of something. 

“Abby!!” Elliot hugged me tightly knowing it was probably exactly what I needed and I hugged him back just melting into whatever feelings were going through me at the time.

“I’m okay, it’s just I’m starting to really panic about tomorrow. Joan wants me to sing on national television but I don’t know if I can get over my stupid anxiety about that…” Elliot just rubbed small circles into my back playing the ends of my hair gently. 

“You have a beautiful singing voice Abby, just imagine that you’re singing whatever you are to one person in the entire world. Maybe that will make it better? That’s what I have to do whenever I give a presentation due to my social anxiety. I have it too and it’s not exactly fun but you can’t let it just put your life on this stunt.” Elliot ever the wiseman reminded me and I smiled at my boyfriend gently kissing him.

“Thank you Elliot, I’m still really freaking nervous, it’s like why did I even agree to do this? If I screw everything up then Obadiah will have actual evidence that I’m a failure at voice acting and he’ll be able to have full reign over my life…” Jeremy hugged me from behind smushing me gently into this sandwich of warmth that helped ease my anxious mind. 

“Why didn’t you just tell us that you were worried about these things? Maybe we can be extra’s or something that way you won’t have to do it alone?” Jeremy offered and I shook my head knowing that I would have to get up at the crack of dawn tomorrow and that episode would be aired then too. 

“I didn’t want to tell you because you were all so proud of me for agreeing to do this and I thought that admitting my feelings would make them known. I don’t want to look like a coward to anybody. That’s not possible Jere, I’ll let you guys sleep in and I’ll do this on my own like planned.” I mentioned and he just gave me the warm drink he had gotten for me. 

“It’s peppermint hot chocolate, your favorite. I would get up early for you, you know that right? I might actually sleep really well tonight considering that I’ll be cuddling two people at once.” He shot us a wink and I saw Elliot flush before rolling his eyes at him and I just blushed a bright pink. 

“Don’t listen to him baby alright? You’re going to be amazing out there and we’re so proud that you’ve come this far and you’re going to become a sensation through this incredible children’s show.” I kissed my boyfriend’s cheek smelling his own regular hot chocolate.

“I know it’s just I’m getting the nervous butterflies and I don’t know how to make them go away…” Jeremy just squeezed my hand tightly through his and I looked up at his normally smiling face turned now dead serious. 

“Then don’t make them go away. The butterflies are not a bad thing, trust me I should know I get them before every baseball game or soccer game. If you really want to make us proud of you than you don’t even need to do this. We’re already proud of you for getting better aren’t we Elliot?” He asked his partner and he nodded his head clinking our styrofoam cups together. 

“We are proud of you Abby, your emotions have gotten a lot better these past couple of weeks. You’ve been doing so good at asking for help when you feel like you really need it and that’s something that everybody struggles with even me. You see me as this perfect person but I’m really not I’m just crazy about you that’s really all.” I laughed at him when he kissed my nose and I smiled at both of them for being there for me to calm my inner thoughts.

“Thanks you guys for always being there I love you both so much…” I admitted the thoughts that I had been having for the past three weeks. I was nervous about how Elliot would react but I hadn’t been expecting for him to kiss me fully passionately on the mouth. 

“I love you too Abigail Jessica Stark, so much that this should be crazy but I think that it was love at first sight if you believe in that sort of thing.” I laughed at my boyfriend and Jeremy just put his arm around my shoulders. 

“I wasn’t expecting to be this willing to share Abby since as she told you I can be a bit of a possessive ass sometimes. When I offered to share her with you it was kind of just a means to an end because I wanted to make her happy with me. I thought that by extending the offer to you that would make her happy no matter what I was thinking at the time. I don’t think that I was expecting to fall for you as hard as I did but that’s ironically exactly what happened. I’ve loved Abby since childhood so I thought that nobody would ever really come close to her in terms of that. I guess that was before I met you with your ridiculous sense of humor, your will to make people just naturally feel better despite what you’re going through at home, your small smile when I do something that somewhat embarrassing or your way of talking about something that you love and when you go off the handle about it. I think that you are the most beautiful and gorgeous boy that I have ever met.” I looked up Elliot who was crying into the sleeve of his sweatshirt not even trying to hide it but looking adorable all the same even with tears staining his ‘Join the hunt’ Supernatural sweatshirt. 

“I promised myself that I wouldn’t get involved in another poly relationship since I’m more gay than bisexual but at the same time I was drawn to both of you. I thought that an almost instant reaction that Abby was breathtakingly beautiful and fell in love with her adorable laugh. Then you decided to show up with your stupid hair and your stupid sense of humor that somehow always makes me laugh at you. You two ruined everything that I had been trying to build up towards in the best way possible.” Elliot seemed to be quickly trying to recover and Jeremy only covered his mouth with a laugh at his adorable boyfriend. 

“Come here love…” He wrapped his arms around Elliot kissing him for the first time that I had seen them do. It looked to be the same way that he kissed me with this element of gentleness what I wasn’t expecting was for my face to start heating up and feeling liquid heat go right through me. I didn’t know why I suddenly felt a thousand degrees hotter but at the same time I found myself not really caring as to why I felt that way. They were so perfect for each other, as perfect as they were for me and I couldn’t help but smile until I heard something behind me. 

“Ugh, can you three keep it to yourself in your own hotel rooms? There are children that are in this hotel as well. My daughter just asked why that girl is letting her boyfriend kiss you.” I turned and saw a middle aged woman and got down on her daughter's level. 

“Let me tell you something female to female okay? Love is love no matter if it’s with a man and a woman the “normal” way, with two boys, or with a man, a woman and another man. Okay? Don’t you listen to what anybody else tells you because they’re wrong and if you want to be the same way then there’s no shame in that.” I told her and the little girl looked up at me who couldn’t be more than seven or eight years old maybe and she gave me a tight hug. 

“I only asked because I was genuinely curious. I apologize for my mom’s assumptions about your relationship. If it means anything I think that you three make a really sweet couple.” The little girl told me and I smiled shyly at the little girl and stood up facing the mother. 

“How dare you tell my daughter something that is clearly a sin?! You’re a sinner and the three of you are all going to hell!!” I rolled my eyes because honestly could this woman be anymore cliche. 

“Well then if I’m going to hell somebody better get my chariot ready since I’ve already made a deal with Hades and he said that you’re going there too for being a bigot, homophobe who has no love in her heart.” Elliot told her putting his arm around my shoulders and pulling me closer into his side. The woman just stomped off in a huff and I couldn’t help but giggle. 

“Since when have you had a deal with Hades?” I asked my boyfriend who only kissed me gently. 

“There’s a lot that you two don’t know about me yet. I was only kidding though it’s the best way to get rid of people like that at least that’s my method. I thought that yours was really sweet though when you were talking to that little girl. That’s exactly what I figured a person like you would say to her. What do you say we get out of here and see if we can’t find any clothing for us to fall in love with?” Elliot offered and I smiled at him taking his hand as Jeremy put his arm around my shoulders. 

“I thought that you both handled that way better than I would have if I were in that situation. I hate bigoted assholes like that more than anything in the world let me tell you something right there. Why can’t they ever just let us live our lives in peace and quiet?” Jeremy asked us and I shrugged audibly following them to the elevators. 

“I have no idea but once you figure out why Jere-bear feel free to give me a call. I’m just glad that all the voice actors so far have been really chill with it since they mean the most to me.” I smiled at both of my boyfriends for sticking up with me to that horrible lady. 

“You know something Elliot? I just knew that you would be a good kisser from the sounds that Abby would make…” I hit him gently upside the head as Elliot turned a bright bright red color. 

“You are such a flirt sometimes I swear to god it’s like your out to kill me…” Elliot muttered under his breath and I just laughed at him. 

“Join the club, if it were just me and him he would be way too much for one girl to handle. The fact that he has to share us is more important since he gets to share the love and fluster the hell out of both of us.” I joked and Jeremy only laughed at me kissing my cheek with his coffee smelling lips. 

“You both love me and you know it…” He joked and Elliot slowly started to smile at him knowing that it was true indeed. The first thing that I saw once we got out of the hotel was a store that looked to sell handmade nerdy items. 

“Why don’t we start there for funsies? It looks like they have some awesome stuff down there.” I told my boyfriends pointing to the store down the road and we all looked both ways before running across the street even though we had the right away. 

“I think I see a Beast Boy sweatshirt not that you need more BB merchandise since your room is practically crawling with it now. I’m next to positive that they should have other things though too.” Jeremy told me holding the door open for me as I went through it and looked around at all the different things for various cartoon shows. Elliot and Jeremy instantly went over to where they had Futurama merchandise but I was drawn to something else entirely. I saw that in the front corner they had items that were crawling with a completely different cartoon theme one that I didn’t watch until high school because it was so different. Even though I would hear about how amazing it was and see how different it’s style was it came on when I was really little and it’s themes were something I was afraid my dad wouldn’t agree with. 

“You guys have Invader Zim stuff?! That’s so awesome, I used to love this cartoon when I was a little girl.” I went over to the section looking at all the hand-sewn merchandise for one of my favorite cartoons that I grew to love when I got older.

“That’s one of our most popular sections, especially the Gir dog hoodies those sell like hotcakes.” I looked at the item that the young lady had been talking about knowing instantly that I needed it in my life even though I had hundreds of other cartoon themed merchandise back at home. I took the hoodie that was in my size looking around for anything else that I wanted in that section seeing an adorable shirt of Gir doing the ‘doom’ song that used to drive Jeremy crazy when a friend of mine back in high school that got me to watch the show named Amy used to do sometimes at lunch just to irritate him. I also saw an adorable pair of Zim gloves that I could draw with to keep the ink or pencil from smudging. 

“I need this too, anything else that I am in desperate need for…” I looked around at all the other things in the store before going back to the Invader Zim section seeing these adorable flat shoes that would perfectly match with my personality.

“And these what are you guys getting? I’m basically buying them out of all their Invader Zim things since there isn’t enough merchandise in the world for that cartoon. It’s one of those things about me that I wish I had the show on DVD but I watched it right before I went to college and I didn’t get the chance to buy it.” I showed Jeremy all the Gir things that I would be purchasing and he just smiled at me shaking his head. 

“We didn’t find anything that we desperately want right Elliot?” He asked our boyfriend who was looking at a pair of shoes with Bender on them in awe.

“You want them? I can get them for you if you want them. You don’t have to buy them for yourself.” I told him taking a pair that I knew was his size since I had given him the Yakko Warner sneakers. 

“I don’t need them perse I just think that they are super cute. I’m a sucker for Futurama, what do you have there?” I tried on the hoodie and put the ears over my head that made me smile brightly. 

“Oh my god!! That is the best thing ever, that is my favorite cartoon of all time. It even beat out Danny Phantom if you get to meet Jhonen Vasquez without me I’m not sure that I will ever be able to forgive you he wasn’t there yesterday when I asked JJ if he was in. Are those Gir shoes?!” I laughed at Elliot’s over exaggerated enthusiasm for the same cartoon that Amy had pretty much strapped me to a chair and told me to watch. 

“Indeed they are, I have a massive love and respect for Zim it’s one of those cartoons that changed the way that I think about my own life. I don’t own it on DVD tragically because I sort of watched it behind my dad’s back around three years ago when I was still in high school. My personal favorite was Zim and Gir but if you were to twist my arm I would say that it’s Gir.” I showed him the shoes and Jeremy started to look at the same shoes with longing. 

“Okay, so you can both pick something from here and I’m going to purchase my Gir things.” I told them moving to the front of the line since we were the only people in the store and I knew that I wanted these items from the store. 

“Did you find everything okay? Your an Invader Zim fangirl oh that is the coolest thing ever. I have a lot of respect for people that can love that show especially as young as you three seem to be.” The older woman who looked to be in her thirties maybe was running the front desk and she scanned all my items.

“Yeah I was a little bit late to the party by nearly thirteen years since I was way too young for the show when it first came out. I didn’t see it until a friend in high school told me that I needed to watch it in order to be friends with her. I wanted so bad for there to a thing where it had Zim doing his evil laugh but I love the things that I found.” I saw my boyfriends come up to the counter as they looked down shyly giving me their items. 

“You two don’t have to look at me like that I don’t mind buying you both things especially ones that you would love.” I told them looking over their items and saw that Elliot had picked out a boys shirt of Bender instead of the shoes which had the typical kiss my shiny metal ass and a Gir hat with the dog ears. Jeremy had a keychain of Zim since that was his personal favorite and the shoes that I saw him looking at earlier which had the four elements of Avatar on them designed into the shoe.

“I know it’s just embarrassing we should be able to pay for our own things…” Elliot told me brushing the fringe out of his eyes as I took the items from them putting them onto the counter anyways and taking out my debit card that I used on a regular basis.   
“Are you three excited for Invader Zim: Enter The Florpis this year? I swear they made us wait forever for this on purpose!! We waited years for something like this to happen and when they made those vocal trailers two years ago me and my husband couldn’t quit freaking out. We have two identical twins that we named Zim and Gaz pretty much the cutest things ever.” I smiled at the lady as she rang up everything and I gave her my card as she put everything into the bags. 

“Not going to lie me and Amy were those two people too especially once the official trailer dropped last year summer. I love the one with Zim and Gir as he tries to be threatening but mostly I just always found them both adorable.” I laughed at the memory of my friend from high school sending me all these things related to Invader Zim once we became friends.

“I thought that the evil villain laugh one was the best just hearing Gir’s was super cute. I’ll always think of Dib in a high light because that was basically me in my friend group when I was still a girl. I thought that the show was real and that I must have been from outer space so I waited for Zim to take me back to where I was meant to belong. Besides, it’s one of those shows that I quote on a daily basis with my parents, it’s not stupid, it’s advanced.” I laughed at Elliot as I got my bag full of items and put the gloves on since my old ones got pretty much drenched and these were cuter anyways for the weather going on outside. 

“He was my personal favorite and I consider his overconfidence to be one of my favorite things.” I laughed at Jeremy as he got his own bag of things giving me a gentle kiss for buying his items for him.

“I think we can all agree that he is one of the best things to ever happen to Nickelodeon other than Spongebob and we wish that it didn’t get canceled mid season that was such bull.” I ranted as I grabbed my bag and gave Elliot’s to him. The rest of the afternoon was spent laughing and buying a lot of things to take back as gifts for our friends and family members. We got to go and see the show that night and it was one of the best feelings ever getting to actually see these two amazing actresses bring two of my favorite female princesses to life and I got the autographs from Cassie Levi and Patti Muran before the night was over definitely not passing out cuddling both of my boyfriend's and my Beast Boy stuffed animal. I heard my alarm clock going off at the ungodly hour of five o’clock in the morning but I kept it quiet so that only I would be able to hear it. It hurt me so much to leave my boyfriends here but as they cuddled each other it made me feel a little bit better. I put on my new hoodie since I would have a set costume once I got there but I still wanted to look as cute as possible. I put on a long sleeved shirt and my main winter jacket lacing up my snow boots and fixing my hair until it was somewhat manageable. I was still rather scared and nervous about what was going to happen today but if I just had the smallest amount of faith I thought that maybe I would turn out okay. I had gotten good luck texts from all my friends last night during the show and as long as they believed in me I was capable of just about anything and everything. I left my boyfriends in the room hearing the sounds of Jeremy’s soft snores that made me smile and I went down the elevator seeing Pepper already down there with a cup of coffee still trying to rub the sleep out of her eyes.

“This had better be worth it kiddo, let me tell you something because nobody should be up this early on a weekend.” She huffed and I moved so that I could sit down next to her while we waited for the people to show up and take us to the studios. 

“You think I want to do this? I’m suddenly really panicky like this isn’t going to work in the slightest and then I’ll have to give up my acting career and do what everybody seems to want me to do. There are so many ways this could fail and fall on it’s ass but I still want to try even though I’m so nervous I want to run and hide while putting noise canceling headphones over my ears.” I had those in my backpack to which I had drawn Zim laughing hysterically on the side of one and dog Gir on the other one.

“It’s going to be okay Abby, you’re going to be great out there and make so many people proud of you. All you have to do is be yourself and everything else should just come to you naturally. Your new hoodie is adorable by the way, it suits you.” I smiled at my close friend taking the smoothie that she had given me.   
“We’ll have a better breakfast after the episode airs and we’re all celebrating. Have you gotten any texts that made you cry last night at the show?” I nodded my head because as embarrassing as me being an emotional mess was it was starting to happen way more than I liked it. I took out my phone to show Pepper what had made me cry and she just turned to look at it reading the text from Greg that I had gotten late last night.

 _Greg: Abby, I know that you’re really nervous about this but let me tell you something, I believe in you. I know that you can indeed pull out all the stops needed to make people’s lives better even if you’re apprehensive about it since you’re shy and nervous around a lot of celebrities. I don’t think that you should be worried about singing on national television, by the way that Invader Zim hoodie looks really cute on you. I say that you go out there and you knock em dead show them the side of you that acts overly confident like Zim even if it’s just an act._ I smiled at Pepper as she just started to laugh at me and I took some sips from my smoothie. 

“He’s right you know? I know for a fact that all those hours of watching Zim went somewhere they’re in there and even if you can’t act like him entirely I hope that you do learn something from this. How to control your anxiety mainly.” I smiled at the fact that Pepper clearly cared so much about me leaning back on the chair that I was sitting in taking out my sketchbook and looking at one of my first drawings that I ever made themed to Invader Zim. I had kept it in here because it was one of my personal favorites and even though it had been ripped out that’s only because it was the only one that moved book to book. It had all my favorite characters making a pyramid with of course them arguing over who should be on the top Gir eventually winning at a game of rock paper scissors between Zim, Dib and Gaz.

“I’m hoping that this will help me with anxiety too since it’s a real pain in the ass. I love these shows so much and eventually one of these days I want to work with all my favorite creators.” I smiled shyly taking another sip from my drink that was in front of me. If I had ever met Jhonen Vasquez I would probably need somebody else with me or else I would end up humiliating myself.

“Well you get to work at Nickelodeon so this is the first step in a new direction. I can’t wait to hear your acting for Liz in the new show you’re going to be so good honey. I know that you sometimes wonder if your dad is proud of you or not but let me tell you that he is so proud of you it’s unreal. We all are, you’ve become such an interesting and compelling person that you can get to know no matter what you always talk about the most fascinating things. I still remember when you first met me and I see this little girl on the couch laughing as Spongebob sings about having The Best Day Ever and how you got tears in your eyes when he mentioned being sad because you felt like that so often. I thought that you were one of the most intriguing children that I had ever seen with your shy nature until somebody brought up a cartoon that you loved when suddenly you start spouting off all this information about how it was created. When I joke about being an over glorified babysitter that was mostly for your father you were able to just sit down and actually talk to another person. I have something for you to add to your Gir collection by the way…” She took out something from her luggage that she had sitting next to her and I recognized it as the same material as my sweatshirt but in a dress form. 

“It’s adorable!! Oh my god, I love it so much I’m going to wear this to the theme park in Jersey I’m so excited about that. This is probably going to be my birthday outfit too since most of you all already know what a huge nerd I am for classic cartoons. In my defense that was the first time that I had ever seen that episode and I was five thinking that Spongebob was always the same happy, lovable, optimistic sponge. He was pre everything even pre Teen Titans since that show didn’t come out until I was six. I have very few cartoons that I can look back at now and say that they actually taught me something about myself. Spongebob taught me something as did Teen Titans, Invader Zim about who I don’t want to be but at the same time I definitely have those qualities and Ninja Turtles.” I looked at my backpack carefully folding the dress to make sure that everything looked good in there and put the dress into the bag. 

“I knew that you would love it, I was going to wait for your birthday to give it to you then but with everything that’s been going on lately I figured that you could use a little bit of happiness in your life. That show brings you a lot of happiness despite how dark it can be but I just remember you laughing at Gir for the first time on your laptop and I just hear this hysterical laughter coming from your room and I heard this high pitched voice just singing the word Doom over and over again. I was figuring that you had finally lost your mind until you restarted the episode and showed me the entire thing. True, I still thought that you were crazy but there wasn’t enough facts there to make me positive that you were insane. I mostly just thought that it was adorable and cute.” I laughed at Pepper as she took a sip from her coffee cup. 

“Hey it’s not my fault that show made me laugh harder than any other cartoon. Plus it’s amazing how right they were about the human race, we’re not stupid we’re advanced.” I joked as I saw the limo start to come up and I stood up putting up the Gir hood and taking my favorite backpack and putting it around my shoulders. Joan was sitting there in the limo as we both climbed in and I put the hood down. 

“Good morning Abby, you certain look cute did you get that from the nerdy store down the street? My grandchildren used to love that show, Invader Zim right?” I nodded my head as I fixed my hair to look a little bit better. 

“Yes ma’am that’s correct it’s one of my favorite classic Nickelodeon cartoons known to mankind. I love it so much, so did you still want me to sing? Because I can totally do it.” I told her and she just looked at me with a raised eyebrow and a smile on her face. 

“Don’t worry, you won’t have to do that anymore though we did have an idea for a cover that we got the rights in twenty four hours rather remarkable if you’re asking me. Take a look.” I flipped through the pages to see that the song they had gotten the rights to was the one and only Best Day Ever from Spongebob. 

“Are you sure that this is such a good idea Abby? I mean you know what your mental state is with Stephen being really sick and everything. I just don’t want you to over exert yourself before the day even really starts.” Pepper warned me and I nodded my head pushing my hair into a high ponytail using my favorite Zim themed hair ribbon sticking to the style that I was going for. 

“I’ll be perfectly fine Pepper, besides I want for him to see me singing it one last time might as well be on television. Thank you so much for using a song that would make me comfortable since you really didn’t have to do that for somebody like me.” I told her and she only tutted shaking her head at me with a smile on her face. 

“It isn’t me doing something that I didn’t want to do. You are going to be great out there and I wanted at least one thing to help make you feel comfortable. Now tell me, when did you first start watching Invader Zim?” I smirked down at my favorite hoodie since this had just replaced every other sweatshirt that I owned.

“Okay, so I didn’t start watching this show until I was in my junior year of high school and in my second drama class. In that class I made a really good friend who I’m still close with today named Amy Moore who taught me to really come out of my shy girl shell with her pretty quickly. She told me that in order to be friends with her and love cartoons at the same time that there was one I absolutely needed to watch by the name of Invader Zim. It was out when I was still way too young and the first season while I was in the orphanage don’t ask me how she saw it because I have no idea. So that day I get home boot up my laptop and started to marathon my way through the show. It changed the way that I look at the human race in general since they were so right and that was over ten years ago. It’s a show that’s so iconic in the field of animation as a whole and a show that to this day I’ll quote pretty much whenever someone gives me the opportunity.” I laughed openly at my new friend that I had made. It was the truth and I loved talking about my favorite cartoons and Invader Zim especially.

“So I’ll bet that one of the people you’re really excited to run into in the halls once you start Rise of TMNT will be Jhonen?” I shook my head looking down at myself as I move a piece hair behind my ear. 

“I’m actually really scared to run into him at the studios because I am such a big fan of what he does even to the point that my favorite comics are the ones that he writes. I’ve only ever read them online since they’re kind of hard to come by at least they were once I got into them. I own most of the Zim ones though and they’re some of my favorite forms of media. If I do see him at the studios though I’ll probably turn down the other hallway. I’m not that great at talking to people that I really admire and there’s hardly a person that I admire more than him and his creative insanity.” I smiled to myself flipping through the pages and looking at the sketch again. I would be lucky to just catch a quick glimpse of him before high tailing it and running the other direction for I would be way too nervous to actually tell him how much I fully admire his work. 

“But you’re great at talking to Greg, Rob, Tom and Doug Abby so you shouldn’t be that worried to just talk to the person who inspired your sense of humor almost as much as Spongebob did.” Pepper told me squeezing my hand gently and I smiled at her all the same even though I was nervous about what we were talking about currently.

“That’s different, I’ve known four out of the five through most of my teenage years and besides Greg is so chilled out and honest with me that it’s hard for me to not talk to him easily. I could probably never have that friendship with Jhonen because I would always have this starstruck attitude to the way that he acted. Even if I’ve seen him in interviews and I know that he would be immensely easy to talk to part of my will always be apprehensive towards him. He’s so creative and such an amazing writer that is so different. I probably wouldn’t have my love for science fiction movies without his influence on my life.” I smiled at the fact that Zim and Gir had actually inspired me so much even though sometimes it could be vulgar and disgusting there was always this part of me that loved watching it. 

“I suggest that you at least try to talk to him at some point, you never really know it could be a friendship that you never knew you needed.” Joan told me as the car stopped and I looked out the window seeing the building where they did everything. It wasn’t nearly the size of Nickelodeon studios which was what I was expecting and it looked like just your average building in New York. I followed her through the halls and she took me into an elevator giving Pepper a lanyard that had an Elmo on it right above her name. 

“You’ll need that since you aren’t an actress or a puppeteer. We’re actually filming much earlier than we normally would and the actors told me to warn you just in case they’re a little bit moody.” She informed me pushing a button as the elevator went up and it dinged at a specific level and I saw what was called the Blue Room. 

“This is where our muppeteer's prepare for the show and where you will be staying for the foreseeable future while we get everything set up. Your first scene is going to be with Marty Robinson he plays Telly and it’s going to be that scene you requested we do. He’s never tried that method before but we’re pretty much open to anything around here.” I nodded my head as she opened the door and I saw four muppeteers that were sitting around and drinking coffee. I recognized one of them as Leslie Carrara-Rudolph the one women that played Abby Cadabby. 

“Leslie, Ryan, Eric, Marty this is Abigail Stark she is going to be the special guest star during this episode. She’s a huge fan of the show so treat her nicely.” She joked and I laughed at her nervously fiddling with the hood of my sweatshirt feeling embarrassment starting to cloud over as well as nervousness. 

“So, Abigail was it? Why don’t you sit down and talk to us for a little while. I admit that meditation wasn’t my first guess for Telly but why don’t you start there?” Ryan asked me as Pepper actually left the room and I gulped taking out my over the ear headphones just for the comfort of having them around my neck. 

“So all my life I have had to deal with anxiety, my head just gets too loud most of the time and so there’s the price of having to deal with that. Having an overactive imagination is great in the day time but at night it’s your worst nightmare. As most of you know my dad was abducted not too long ago and that’s kind of why I’m here to talk about parents who are naturally busy and don’t know how to divide the time between their kids and their jobs. It wasn’t as bad as a lot of people might think and he’s really an incredible father figure to have in my life. The backstory of the meditation thing was because I made this friend who’s a voice actor that I spent most of my childhood loving his name is Greg Cipes he played one of my favorite characters in cartoons Beast Boy in Teen Titans. I figured out through him that mediation when done right actually helps with anxiety more than medication could ever do and I love the idea of helping Telly since I always related to him.” I explained a little bit about my past with anxiety and how I dealt with it before vs now when I had an actual method. 

“So are those noise canceling headphones? Do you have sensory issues?” Eric asked me and I guessed that he was the puppeteer for Grover my favorite imaginative muppet. 

“Well yes and no, see I have Aspergers and my dad bought me these plain black ones for my high school days since it was really loud there and I needed something to tune them out. He let me paint them myself and around that time was when I started to watch Invader Zim for the first time which remains to this day one of my top five favorite cartoons, it’s probably my second favorite the only one that tops it is the original Teen Titans. They just bring me comfort like they are right now since I was really nervous coming in here.” I pushed a lock of hair into my Invader Zim themed ribbon that had Zim doing his maniacal laugh at the top.

“Aww you didn’t have to be nervous, so do you go by Abby? Is she your favorite muppet?” I nodded my head taking out my phone which had my favorite characters all drawn onto it. 

“Yeah, actually she is when I was adopted she was the one who taught me about genuine kindness and generosity towards others. I admire a lot of qualities about all the muppets on this show but Abby will always be my favorite because she gave me that relatability and taught me so much about how to treat people in the world around me.” Leslie only smiled at me as I flipped through my sketchbook finding what I was looking for easily and showing it to her. 

“This is beautiful!! Can I keep it?” She asked me as she showed everyone else the fanart of Abby flying through the sky that was a pink and purple since I was having fun with oil pastels at the time. 

“Yeah of course you can keep it, sorry I’m just really awkward without a sound barrier. This is why I could probably never meet Jhonen Vasquez who created my favorite cartoon…” I pushed a lock of hair just wanting to melt into the back of the couch but knowing that was physically impossible. 

“I don’t think that you’re awkward Abby, I think that you’re a little bit too shy for your own good but I can also see that you have talent since you’re doing this even though you’re scared. You want people to be proud of you since you have this belief that you can do anything. What are some of your hobbies other than drawing?” Marty asked me and I smiled to myself taking out my phone and showing him my video of me doing the fourteen forty that would become to be on Rise. 

“I am a really good skateboarder and I surf a lot too since I grew up in Malibu and love to go on vacations to Hawaii that’s where I learned how to do it. I also love martial arts which was inspired by my love for the ninja turtles and my good friend Rob Paulsen giving me this epic bo staff for my tenth birthday in my gift basket. All the voice actors that I met at that party gave me a special gift that was organized specifically from them.” I told them and they all looked at the video in awe seeing me doing the four rotations with practiced ease. 

“Okay I’ll be honest and say that I hadn’t expected that to be a thing that’s really intense. So you’re a Spongebob fan right? I’ve always been able to just tell if somebody is into cartoons that they usually love Spongebob.” I nodded my head with a small smile on my face talking about my favorite cartoons. 

“I do really love that one it’s the only show on Nickelodeon that I watched growing up since there were kind of going through the animation rut at the time while Cartoon Network was kicking their butts at least in terms of good quality content. I watched a lot of Teen Titans, Dexter’s Laboratory, Grim Adventures Of Billy And Mandy, Fosters Home For Imaginary Friends and hundreds of other shows that I just watched sometimes like CodeName Kids Next Door was pretty cool for it’s time. Basically I channel surfed a lot to try and find new cartoons for me to obsess over a lot of it was on that channel though.” I told them listing off all the shows that I had grown up with on the network that pretty much provided for children and their imaginations. 

“That’s actually really cool that you’re able to talk about cartoons and yet you’re an adult. I think that most people once they reach a certain age they just stop remembering what it’s like to be a child. They think that work is far more important than being their childhood self but you seem to be still at one with that side of your personality.” Eric praised and I smiled softly fingering the end of my noise canceling headphones. 

“It’s as my favorite book growing up at the orphanage would tell you, growing up isn’t the problem forgetting is. I will always want to debate the pluses and minuses of having my favorite cartoons in my life for the better or worse they happened to me even if some of them like Spongebob are being run through the wringer at the moment I think that’s just because Stephen is getting sicker and sicker and the director right now is a bit of a dick who doesn’t really know how to run a children show with the same enthusiasm that Stephen gives to it. He didn’t make it for the money he made it so that one day children will want to protect the ocean one of our few natural resources. There is something so special about that since he is so amazing and one of the most inspirational people that I have ever met in my entire life.” I gave my two sense on why Spongebob had been going slowly downhill for the last two years since he got diagnosed.

“That is such a horrible thing and it’s just sort of a part of life that you have to get through. Is this the first time that your ever really having to deal with death?” Marty asked me and I felt tears come to my eyes as I nodded my head deeply affected by the topic of conversation. 

“Yeah he told me when I talked to him yesterday when I had to go through my audition process to get to be on Rise Of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that he didn’t think that he would hardly last past my birthday. It’s really bad and I just hope that I don’t have to go to a funeral too soon because that would have to be a lot on my plate personally. I don’t deal with sadness that great, I mean one of my closest friends is Rob Paulsen and he had throat cancer for a good chunk of time and I thought that I would lose him shortly after just getting him as a friend. It hurts to think about my good friend’s days being numbered and I have to deal with my dad being abducted too and it’s just a lot.” I wished that I had brought one of my stuffed animals with me but I knew that was a little bit weird as I looked through my backpack to at least find something to help calm my anxiety down but there was nothing in there aside from my noise canceling headphones that were around my neck. 

“If it means anything to you Abby we’re glad that you were able to come all the way out here to be on our little program. I am looking forward to seeing you blossom like a beautiful little flower now just take some deep breaths with me okay? Can you do that? Your breathing is really shallow right now and I need for you to relax or you will give yourself a panic attack.” Leslie told me as I crossed my legs and tried to shut out all that anxiety and bad blood flushing it out of me like Greg had told me to.

“There you go honey, you’ve got it you’re doing great at calming yourself down is this what you’re going to teach Telly?” Marty asked me and I nodded my head at him knowing that there was something else that I had planned for the little anxious muppet.

“Yes there is also one other thing that my good friend taught me that I’m going to show to Telly because it helped me out a lot. So what you do is you take the person’s hand and you have to shout ‘I love my life’. It actually really helped me anyways with my self confidence since I’m normally this shy small bean child and he knew that getting into it.” I smiled to myself feeling instantly better after taking some deep breaths and flushing that bad blood out of me. 

“That’s actually a really beautiful way of looking at things, so you’re going to sing The Best Day Ever too huh? That’s the first time that we’ve ever been able to do a cover of a song before but it means a lot to you I can imagine.” Eric asked me and I got out my guitar that I did actually have inside of my backpack taking it out of the case. 

“This was the one thing that Stephen Hillenburg gave to me he had it handmade for me and then painted it himself. It’s in the style of his cartoon with the flowers and the jellyfish around it. Then he had Tom sign it with the lyrics to the song that changed the way that I thought about my own life

“Sometimes the little things start closing in on me. When I’m feeling down I wanna lose that frown I stick my head out the window and I look around.” I explained showing them all the instrument that meant more to me than any other object in my life most of the time aside from my skateboard and surfboard that I have.

“Wow, that’s actually really heartfelt, may I see it?” Leslie asked and I gladly handed it to her since it meant more to me than anything else and I wanted to see her look at it with the same awe that I often did. 

“It’s one of the most defining moments of my personality, I’ll never forget when I learned how to play it and the first thing that Stephen taught me to play was Ocean Man the song that he used in the ending credits scene for Spongebob’s first movie. He had me go up to his old office that was at the older Nickelodeon studios and taught me how to play it everyday after school until I mastered it. I remember he was so proud of me when I finally learned the entire thing. Tom used to sit there and listen in on all of the recordings. They both always encourage me and have never stopped pretty much since I was a young teenager.” I smiled at my guitar as Leslie gave it back and I strummed a few chords feeling it calm me down almost as much as the earlier meditation did. 

“It sounds to me like both animation and music helped form you into who you are. I don’t think that you should be nervous around us. We can read a good person from a bad one pretty quickly and we were a little bit worried about the daughter of Tony Stark mostly because we thought that we would have to spend the entire time comforting her about her father. But you haven’t even really discussed it yet and that’s probably the biggest surprise to all of us.” Eric told me as Joan reentered the room with a small smile on her face. 

“Abby? We’re ready for you to get through wardrobe it shouldn’t take too long but sadly you aren’t allowed to keep wearing the Gir hoodie.” She told me and I nodded my head folding up my hoodie and putting it into my backpack and my guitar into its case deciding that carrying it would be much easier than not.

“Yeah I figured about the whole hoodie thing, come on let’s go and make look way better than I ever could.” I followed her and she led me to this room that had the name guests written over the top of it and I almost ran for the first thing to speak to me a frilly pink dress that was a lighter color than I was used to and a white shawl. “Could this work for my main scenes with the muppets? And then this for the scene with Telly?” I asked her taking the leggings a pink hoodie and a white tank top from the rack. 

“Those would work out perfectly, you really do have an eye for color Abigail Star. Not that I’m surprised I’m sure that you own lots of pretty dresses and things.” I laughed openly at her shaking my head but with that same small smile on my face. 

“No way, I mostly own jeans, leggings, skirts and graphic tees. A lot of character themed hoodies too and things that are themed to my love of animation. I mean I’ll wear the dress because it’s pretty and it’s here but I’m not going to be in my natural state due to it.” I told her as I laid them out over the counter taking my hair out of it’s hair band and shaking it out. It actually didn’t look that bad and I could probably get away with not having much to get done from it.

“I’ll get makeup sent down here right away.” Joan snapped her fingers and a woman came in with a makeup kit and another one followed her with hair equipment. I hoped that I wouldn’t need too much of the makeup since my dad had always told me that I had a really cute naturally face. 

“You have a really good natural look to you, you don't need much makeup at all. Pick a color sugar.” She told me and I picked the light pink color of lipstick that would match both the dress and the workout clothes that I had picked out. The hairdresser just let my hair fall down into the waves down past my shoulders after washing it for me and using a product that I used back at home to keep it from being too frizzy. 

“Would you like to pick out a headband?” I nodded my head at here picking the black one that had a bow to the side and she added it to the rest of my outfit as I put on the dress first. I found a pair of strappy sandals that would fit this outfit much better than anything else in the world. 

“You look really beautiful Abby, you sure that you’re ready to do this?” I nodded my head at Pepper’s question getting in front of the camera that was in the front of Sesame Street as I felt tears coming to my eyes. _I finally made it here dad, I wish that you were able to see this right now. You would probably be running around trying to take everything in at once. I miss you and I hope that you’re still alive wherever you might be._ I turned towards the camera and felt the lights turn on me and I smiled to myself just trying to make it look as natural as possible. The episode went off without a hitch and I got to laugh and play around with all my favorite puppets. I got to give hugs to Grover, serious life goals right there and he was the one that I taught the I love my life too as well since I knew as his character he would take that to heart because deep down he was one of the most relatable characters to me in my eyes. Always playing imaginative games and running around trying to pretend that he is something far more interesting than the world he was in. Getting to teach Telly about meditation and relaxing of the mind went over really well as did my interactions with Abby, Elmo and Julia went really greatly as well as meeting the new muppet that they created a girl name Talia who was adopted and she wondered if her parents really wanted her since they worked a lot so far in her new house. Once I got back to the hotel my boyfriends were still asleep since it was only an hour and a half since I had left and the episode still had an hour more before it aired. Right now my social battery was just about dead so I went to go and look out the window for a little while at the snow that was falling down outside my window. It was such a beautiful and to me unique sight that I was amazed by all of this that I realized today was Valentine's day. It would be my first year that the holiday happened and I actually had two boyfriends. I knew that Jeremy probably had something up his sleeve I was just praying it wasn’t too much since this was far from my favorite holiday. I sat cross legged on the floor before my phone buzzed loudly. 

_Josh: The episode is starting!! You look so beautiful in that pink dress, I’m really proud of you since I can tell that you were really nervous but you still went out there and did it anyways. That just proves that you’re getting better with these types of things!!_ I smiled at my friend for texting me when I reached for the remote and found the channel turning it on so that my boyfriends who were just starting to wake up could watch it. 

“Oh it’s on? Oh my god, you look so beautiful Abby!!” Jeremy hugged me from behind and Elliot clung to my other arm. 

“He’s really right you look absolutely breathtaking in it, I’m so proud of you for going out there and doing this just because you wanted to. You didn’t get nervous before you did it either and that only made prouder of you.” Elliot praised as the episode started and I began talking. I thought that I would feel awkward watching myself on television but I was actually completely comfortable until we got to the scene with Telly and me and I taught him about meditation when my phone started to ring with Greg’s image next to it. 

“Oh no he’s probably going to be mad at me for not asking him first…” I answered the call not expecting it to be face time as I heard the start of my scene with Abby and Elmo in the background. When I looked at the voice actor he had tears in his eyes. 

“Did you not like it? I’m really sorry, see I wanted to surprise you and kind of thank you for all that you’ve done for me and that was the best thing that I could have possible thought of. If you didn’t like it then I’m really sorry but I couldn’t think of a better way to thank you for all that you’ve done for me…” I apologized but he only shook his head and I saw my puppy lick the phone as she saw my face thinking probably that she could lick my face through a cell phone. 

_“That’s not it at all look Belle can you move for a second she’ll be home next week and you can slobber her all you want then. I’m not upset with you Abby honey, in fact I’m over the moon that you wanted to share what I taught you with the world. Nobody has ever done something so kind like that for me nor was I expecting it. When I saw that you were showing Telly the same method that I taught you of flushing out that bad blood and leaving it with good positive thoughts afterwards I thought that was the most beautiful thing that I had ever seen. Never let anybody tell you that you are not deserving of love ever again okay? You are so deserving of all the love in the world and I’m so proud of you for becoming this incredible person within the span of a week.”_ Greg praised and I felt tears come to my eyes and I saw Ethan and Steven next to him as well as several other people coming through the image. I saw five texts start to blow up my phone and I wanted to yell at all my voice actor friends to chill the hell out while I try to talk with one person at a time. 

“Sorry I’m getting kind of spammed seems like everybody and their mother wants to congratulate me right now. I’m so glad that you liked it Greg, you know you’re one of the most amazing people that I have ever had the utmost pleasure of meeting and one day working with if Lizzy goes through. There are so many things in my life going on right now but out of all the hectic things that I’m trying to get done you helped me get my anxiety under control and I’ll always love you like a brother for that.” I reminded him and Eric got into the shot as he signed to his brother and talked to me.

“He just shot up like a rocket the minute that he saw you in those workout clothes twisted into a pretzel and it was like every neighbor could hear him. There are way more people here now because he yelled so loudly that they wanted to hear what was going on.” I laughed at the loud twin as Greg took his phone back from the obnoxious twin.

 _“I think that’s been just about enough out of him, sorry to disturb you guys and your viewing experience I’ll see you next week Abby!! Oh by the way I thought of your nickname that I’m going to call you from now on it’s starshine instead on sunshine similar thing but I think that it will work.”_ I smiled brightly at my good friend as I took out my guitar on the screen and knew that I was probably going to get more spam from three other people especially after this was over. 

“I’m betting good money that after this I’m going to get hella spamed but I’ll talk to you later Greg. Tomorrow is going to be crazy busy but I can’t wait to come back home next week. I miss you guys and I miss my little girl. I’ll text you later.” I waved to my friend through the screen and put down my phone watching as I took out my guitar and I heard the familiar tones of Best Day Ever start to come out of it. I couldn’t have imagined what Tom, Doug and Stephen were thinking as the song started to play out and I wished that they were in the same room as me right now so I could see their reactions. These were three people who taught me so much about myself and I learned how to be myself through them and I got three calls all at one time not knowing who to call back first before playing the eeny mini mo game and picking Stephen.

“You rang, I take it that you’re watching the episode? Unless you’re randomly calling me for another reason to which how may I help you?” I joked and heard his laughter on the other end of the phone.

 _“I’m with my wife at my place right now since I couldn’t get out of bed today not the first time that’s happened. I was supposed to join Tom but obviously that didn’t happen and he’s with his grandkids watching it right now. You have no idea what hearing you sing that song is doing to me Abby. You constantly amaze me no matter what you do it’s always bound to put me speechless. I wasn’t expecting this in the slightest I didn’t even know that you got the rights until Tom told me once you started singing the song since they asked him instead of me.”_ He sounded so weak and instantly I wanted to give my old friend a tight hug to try and make him feel better. 

“I wanted to surprise you guys, I was practically shaking with nerves but I just took deep breaths and put my mind at ease like Greg taught me to before I came here yesterday. I’m sorry that you’re not feeling well, how long do you think now?” I asked him and pushed my glasses up my nose as Jeremy’s arms tightened around my waist as him and Elliot continued watching the special. 

_“Maybe a month or maybe more anything could happen. I will do whatever it takes to get to your birthday party though because I know how much that means to you Abby. I don’t want to leave this world without saying goodbye to my favorite little star.”_ I dried the tears in my eyes and smiled softly knowing that he would do whatever it took to come to my party. 

“I don’t want you to put yourself out of your way for just me though Stephen. You’re what’s most important right now is that you take care of yourself. I should probably call back Doug and Tom are they together?” I asked the creator and I could nearly hear his smile through the phone. 

_“_ _They are indeed and having a small get together at Tom’s place with his grandchildren and all the other voice actors from Spongebob. I was supposed to join them but I couldn’t get out of bed and my wife moved the television into here for me so that I could still watch you perform. I am so proud of you Abigail Stark, it’s so hard for me to believe that this is the same girl who had a hard time talking to a girl who complimented her on her adorable pajamas all those years ago.”_ I laughed at the memory openly rolling my eyes at the fact that of course he remembered that from the Spongebob pajama breakfast.

“You guys just don’t know how to let things go do you? Fine be that way I have other calls to make. I love you uncle Stephen.” I told him honestly since it was such a rare thing that I almost never said that I loved anyone other Jeremy, Elliot or my dad. 

_“I love you too Abigail Stark, you are the greatest fan that I have ever met both in the literal and the metaphorical sense. I’ll let you call Tom and Doug back take care of yourself tomorrow okay? I wish that I could come with you guys to the theme park but they promised that they would send videos to me of you guys going on rides and whatnot.”_ I bid my friend another goodbye and sighed deeply feeling rather emotionally drained after the events of this morning and just wanting to be a hermit and join the rest of the world. 

“Is everything okay baby? You look really drained and tired.” Elliot asked me as he looked at me seeing the tears that were in my eyes that were threatening to fall. 

“Yeah I’m fine, just long morning and I’m really overwhelmed with all this going on in my life. I don’t know how to handle the fact that Stephen couldn’t even get out of bed this morning and he told me that it isn’t the first time that it’s happened either. And that hurts me because I can’t do anything to help him get better other than just being emotionally supportive but even that’s hard because I don’t know how to talk to him now without crying. His work means so much to me and he taught me so much about the world once we became really good friends. I don’t know where I would be without his profound influence on my life.” I dried the tears that were there and Jeremy just tightened his arms around my waist. 

“Just be yourself around him as much as you can love and everything will be okay. I know it’s hard for you and this is the first time that your having to deal with these issues. Do you remember when my grandpa died five years ago? He got cancer and we were really close oddly enough closer than I am with my own parents and I live with them. I didn’t know how to let him go and do you know what you told me? As long as he knows that you love him and that you remember the good times that you spent together then there will be no reason to grieve. You were only fourteen at the time and I told you that you had no idea how I felt or what I was going through. That’s how I found out that Rob had cancer. They had only been friends for one year after that and were as close as could possibly be. You told me how you had only just met him and that you didn’t want to have to say goodbye before you had even spent a decent chunk of time with him. You made me realize how selfish I was being not even noticing that you had shrunken into yourself again. Rob had been trying to get her to boost her self confidence and things were actually going really well. You don’t have to say goodbye to him yet Abby all you have to do is to remember how much you love him and to try and make things easier for him when it eventually happens.” Jeremy reminded me and Elliot just blinked at me with tears in his eyes. 

“I hate to see you suffering over this so much baby, it’s clear that he means so much to you as a person. He’s dying way too early but sometimes it’s just the things that happen to the best of people and you have to learn to cope with that. You can’t stop it from happening and you can’t think of a way to cure him and make it all better. If I could figure out a way to cure him then I would but there is no possible way for that to happen.” I leaned back against Jeremy’s chest gently as he ran his fingers through my hair and I called Tom back knowing that Doug was with him. It only took a couple of rings before the familiar sound of his voice comforted me.

 _“Hey there she is!! I was just about to call you back again since you didn’t answer one of us immediately like you usually would. Are you okay Abby? I’m hearing sniffling and that’s never a good thing.”_ I could tell from the tone of my friend’s voice that he was worried about me but I just dried the last of my tears and tried to buck up at least for him so he wouldn’t have to hear my pathetic sniffling. 

“I’m alright Tom, sorry you Doug and Stephen all called me at the same time and you two lost the round of eeny meeny miny moe. I’m just really emotionally exhausted right now and talking to the puppeteers while fun before the show I was really nervous. The only reason why I didn’t have a sensory overload was because I had my headphones around my neck. Of course that probably only made me look even weirder so that’s a thing since nobody knows Invader Zim anymore except massive nerds.” I heard Doug laughing at me since he had wanted to show me the show but never did because he was worried about what my dad would have done.   
****

**_“In hindsight probably all three of us calling you at the same time wasn’t a good idea. I can’t believe you went and did that Abby, Tom was a massive emotional mess because of you too.”_ ** Doug teased his old friend and I could only imagine that Tom was sticking his tongue out at his old friend. 

_“_ _Okay maybe I was but that doesn’t mean that you can go blurting it out like that. All the same I thought that it was the nicest things that anybody has ever done for me. You really are some kind of incredible person Abby even if you don’t see yourself in that light. He was crying too though so that’s just the pot calling the kettle black. I don’t think that anybody thought that you were weird Abby, besides if they did that’s their problem not yours. I happen to think that your headphones suit your incredible sense of taste and style. You love cartoons especially Invader Zim more than anything in the world and it’s those kinds of things that are important to you. Who cares if you fangirl out and act like a huge nerd? We sure don’t if you do in fact most of us voice actors make careers out of being nerds.”_ Tom comforted me like the pro that he was and I smiled softly at the idea of my close friends all teaming up to help make me feel better.   
****

**_“Besides if they don’t know the joy that animation gives you then they don’t know you Abby and that’s not your fault it’s theirs for forgetting what it’s like to be a child. And those who have seen Invader Zim all love it so they’ve just probably never got to witness its insanity. It’s true that did bring some tears to my eyes you were such a natural out there honey and you’re going to make an amazing voice actress. I should know because I was the one that you used to rehearse with so I know that you can pull off any character that you want.”_ ** Doug praised and I knew that I should probably listen to him because most of the time these guys knew me better than I knew myself. 

“You guys are probably right is it just going to be the five of us at the theme park? I don’t know if I can handle many more people maybe that’s just my social meter being at a zero right now after this morning's craziness.” I asked my two close friends in the industry and could almost see the smile on their faces. 

_“_ _It’ll just be us and it should be a lot of fun. We can split up if that’s what you would prefer, all I’m asking is that at the very least you ride the Spongebob roller coaster with me and Doug.”_ I laughed at just how easy one of my closest friends in the world was.   
****

_**“I want to do the Flying Dutchman section, it’s like this whole play area with a zip-line and the whole nine yards. We wouldn’t have invited other people without telling you Abby we’re not like that and we know how you get around others that you’re not close to. We would have invited Carolyn but she’s been busy lately. We’ll let you go, you three have a happy Valentine’s Day okay?”** _ I smiled at the fact that Doug had cared enough not to invite any of the other Spongebob cast members since he did know I got really nervous the bigger a party got if I wasn’t close to most of the members. While I had met all the voice actors by this point in my life I still was fairly awkward around many of them.   
“You guys too, have fun with your family Tom tell them I said hi and everything. I love you guys.” I told them before hanging up the phone and leaning back knowing that I should probably check my texts but I could do that after the episode was finally over.

“And that feels a bit better, thank you guys for helping make me feel better.” I thanked both of my boyfriends as they only hugged me tighter.

“That’s what our job is if you would just lean on us from time to time honey. Are you hungry and ready to join the rest of civilization at least for breakfast?” I nodded my head and sat up dusting off my leggings as we went to go and join Pepper and Happy for breakfast that actually went rather well. They had both really loved the episode that I had made and I read all the texts that I had gotten from my friends. 

_Greg: All the people just got here as the episode started, we’re throwing an afternoon barbeque in your honor. I’m sure that you’ll be great kiddo, I believe in you no matter what happens._ _  
_

_Rob: That’s my girl!! I’m so proud of you for using that confidence that I know you have inside of you. Don’t be afraid of what people think about you because once that happens that’s when you lose your battle._ _  
_

_Josh: I’m betting good money right now that Greg is crying in front of all the people that he let into his house. You’re doing brilliantly Abby, you never cease to amaze those around you even when you’re scared you have more guts than any other girl that I have ever met._ _  
_

_Greg: I can’t believe that you went and did that!! I am so proud of you starshine that’s what I’m calling you now you’re going to have to deal with it because you are my little star._ _  
_

_Ben: Well look at you go girl!! You’re doing really well for somebody who has never been on camera before but I’m really proud of you._ I smiled at the fact that all my friends had cared so much about me and I texted them all separate thank you’s before the end of breakfast.

“Why don’t you two go out without me? I’m still really drained and I would much rather you guys went out and had fun instead of me.” I told both of my boyfriends hugging them at the front entrance of the hotel as they left probably talking about how weird I was acting. I mostly just wanted to get some quiet time to myself so that I could get some more sleep and probably just relax for a little while. I was so dead emotionally and physically at the moment that I would take anything I could get. I put on my Sesame Street pajamas going back to bed and taking out my favorite plushie’s and hugging them tightly. I curled up into my ball that I usually slept in and prayed that it would come easily. However I was wrong and I flopped onto my side thinking about tweeting something out. I grabbed my phone and saw that my Twitter was promptly blowing since everyone had finished watching the special. There was a multitude of congratulations about what a great job I had done but there was a Tweet that I really wanted to make and send out to the rest of the world. It would be themed to Invader Zim and I wanted people to make a choice between two of my favorite characters who often got looped together as one of the biggest jerks in the entire show but everybody loved them so much since they made them laugh and one of them had some of the most iconic lines in the entire series. _Alright followers, I have a bit of a challenge for all of you. You know the drill at this point I pick two characters and you have to decide which one is better than the other there is no happy medium option where both of them get to be the same wavelength. I have been thinking about rewatching one of my favorite all time cartoons Invader Zim lately to hype myself up for the coming movie this year. Two of my favorite characters aside from the obvious being GIR and Zim are both of the Almighty Tallests Red and Purple. I want you to pick the better one of the two of them and I will be putting in my two sense of who my personal favorite is at the very end if it isn’t obvious enough. I expect for this to be hard since there are hilarious qualities about each. Speaking of which, random animation voice actor fact of the day, did you know that the voice actor for Purple is the same as Pleakley from Lilo and Stitch? Both are voice by Kevin McDonald. Probably not my best fact since they sound exactly alike but hey I’m tired and can’t seem to sleep at all._ I put out the tweet into the world finally being able to roll over to get some sleep. When I woke up a few hours later I saw that there were heart shaped balloons and flowers in the room and looked up seeing Elliot and Jeremy cuddled into my side. 

“Sorry if today hasn’t been that interesting I’m really super drained after the events of this morning. I wasn’t expecting for that to wear me out so much.” I apologized to them and they just looked at me with all the love that I knew they had for me. 

“Baby, it’s fine. You need to take some time for you too tomorrow is going to be a mostly normal day but the next three days after that are going to be crazy with the mall and amusement park. It’s perfectly normal for you to be beat and dead tired. By the way, that poll of yours, is actually going really well people seem adamant that Red is the best one though. To which I can’t blame them I mean he does get more work done than Purple but come on he has some of the most classic lines!! And I had no idea about that fact that’s actually making a lot of sense to me now that I think about it.” Elliot told me and I checked to see that surprisingly it was really close but what was that? Had somebody mentioned me in a Tweet? Was it Rob? I went to go and check my notifications and saw that it was the last person I was expecting. 

“What the hell?” I asked as I read the tweet while I was trying to get it registered to my brain of what was going on. I checked the polls to see who had voted for what just to see if it was true and it was. Jhonen Vasquez was one of the people that had voted so far and he had voted for Purple tweeting about it too. _Oh the age old question of which Tallest is better. Seems that most people are actually stupid and don’t know that the best one is actually Purple. You people need to get out there and vote for this poll to show the world that he is actually the better one even if he basically did squat so did Red. That was the joke with their characters. I wanted to created these two lazy assholes who were somehow in charge even though all they did was lie around, bitch and complain about things and eat food._

“No way?! He actually voted and he voted for clearly the right answer?! You have to go up to his office next week once you’re back at the studios Abby you just have to do it.” Jeremy encouraged and I nodded my head even if I was nervous I tweeted back to him. _I know right?! When I tweeted that I was really tired but I thought surely it has to be Purple by a landslide because he was the king of snark. Even if you could argue that Red is nicer to Zim I relate far more to Purple’s levels of irritation since whenever I get annoyed I’m always insanely overdramatic._

“That’s kind of true, I mean it’s not stupid it’s advanced come on people!!” Elliot playfully ranted about the lack of representation for our favorite leader of the empire. 

“I concur he has to be one of my favorite characters on the entire show. I mean they’re both horrible don’t get me wrong but in terms of who I had the most fun with it’s got to go to Purple. Why couldn’t you have sent him to the surface of the sun? Or a planet made of glass?” Jeremy tried to impersonate him and I just ended up laughing at him. 

“So I got to ask, what’s with the heart shaped everything? I know it’s Valentine’s Day but seriously?” I asked them and they both nodded their heads at me as if I was perpetually stupid. 

“Because it’s Valentine’s Day and we wanted to get some things because you’re really special to us whether you choose to believe it or not love. I love you and your obsession with cartoons not only makes sense but it’s really adorable.” I blushed a bright pink at Jeremy’s praise and tried to make it look like I wasn’t totally flustered dead. 

“I know I’m not the biggest fan of this holiday either honey this wasn’t really my idea Jeremy wanted to surprise you to try and make you feel better. The only thing that was my idea was this…” He gave me a bag that had candy and cupcakes and actually pink donuts and at the very bottom of the bag was something that I had been looking for to add to my collection of animated shows for a really long time. It was a box set of Invader Zim episodes and I cheered for joy at finding them there. 

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!! I’ve been meaning to add this show to my ever growing collection of favorite shows for a really long time coming. This means a lot to me Elliot so thank you very much. Plus you remembered my favorite kind of donut!! I’m highkey obsessed with these even if I’ve had sugar already with the hot chocolate if the Tallest taught me anything it’s that one can never have too much sugar. Plus when you have his metabolism where he can pretty much eat a horse you need a lot of it.” I teased and he just stuck his tongue out at me for my troubles resting his chin on my head as I took the donut that was in there. 

“Meh I can’t argue and debate that because it’s one hundred percent true. What do you say we put that in, gorge ourselves on sugar and candy and spend the rest of the afternoon here on this bed relaxing and cuddling?” Jeremy requested since we didn’t technically have to leave our hotel room until tonight when we had to go to the show. 

"That sounds absolutely fantastic, I haven’t seen it in a couple of years anyways.” I leaned back against the headboard and Jeremy kissed the corner of my mouth trying to pick up the sprinkle that was laying there. 

“We also have popcorn and Reese’s for the candy filled popcorn if you want that as well. It’s microwave so it won’t be the exact same as I usually make it but it’ll have to do.” Jeremy told me and I thought about it reaching into the bag and finding that there was also a bottle of one of my favorite treats sparkling apple cider.

“Okay I’ll get this started on my laptop since it’s the biggest and the most high tech and you two get the snacks that you want ready.” Elliot reached into his satchel and took out the laptop that he used for all his science purposes that happened to be on of the most high tech pieces of technology that I wasn’t surprised when he told me he pretty much made it by hand himself. He slipped the DVD into the compartment and I saw the expression on Zim’s face in the midst of evilly laughing. 

“There is something so iconic just about that laugh in general. There’s nothing in the world that sounds quite like it.” Elliot reminded me and I smiled as Jeremy came back with the separate bowls of popcorn and sugar for me and a bigger one for him and Elliot to share. We started the episode and ended up getting through one of my favorite shorter ones Germs before it was time for us to get going to the show. Phantom was absolutely stunning for the first time seeing it live this close and I fell in love with everything about it. When we landed in Jersey the next day I remember being so tired that we practically just collapsed onto our huge bed in the cuddle heap yet again. The next morning was the one that I had been looking forward to for basically this entire trip. Today it would just be me Tom and Doug at the theme park and then tomorrow my boyfriend’s would be joining us. They wanted to spend the day looking at the other facets of the mall and the first thing I did was check my poll to see how everything went down. 

“Yes!! Purple won, landslide majority.” I cheered for one of my favorite characters on the show instantly feeling better as I wrote a little blurb down at the bottom. _You all had me a little worried there for a minute. I adore both of these lazy bums but in terms of who I quote more on the entire show as a whole it has to go to Purple. His lines have always just stuck with me and I relate to him so hard sometimes especially if you are one of the few people that annoy me. I can be insanely over dramatic with many emotions but especially when I’m irritated._ I dusted off my dress that I had put on while I was waiting for Jeremy and Elliot to finish their breakfast. 

“Awwww did Pepper buy that for you? You look so cute!! You have to let me take a selfie of you please?” Jeremy begged once he saw that I was wearing the GIR themed dress that my dad’s assistant had cared enough to buy for me. 

“Fine but just this once okay?” I asked him in clarification and he nodded his head enthusiastically as I put on the hood just smiling mostly to myself at how cute this ensemble had turned out. It seemed that we got lucky since it wasn’t raining or snowing out there today and it was just sunny so that’s why I decided to break out the dress with leggings, my peacoat and my new Zim themed shoes. 

“I know you feel really awkward in photos but the gap between your two teeth is adorable. It just makes you look more like 2012 Donatello and that’s not a bad thing abby. You shouldn’t feel embarrassed by it or anything like that okay?” Elliot reminded me with a small smile on his face as I nodded my head feeling a little bit better. I let Jermey take all the pictures that he wanted to with his phone since it was nearly impossible for me to say no to him even when I was embarrassed by what he was making me do. I felt comfortable with him taking the pictures though even when I knew that when he asked me to sing the doom song that it would end up on his instagram. 

“I’m just gonna roll around on the floor a bit kay?” I joked remembering one of my favorite moments in the show when Zim was trying and struggling to keep his fortress tidy and Gir kept being dirty and wanting to roll around on the floor. 

“No Gir!!” They both yelled at me and I looked at them cocking my head to the side gently. 

“Does somebody need a hug?” I tried my best to emulate the character that I had spent most of my high school years laughing at and loving his adorable sense of humor with his never ending optimism. Jeremy stopped filming me and I smiled when he kissed me gently before sending the visual out to the world. Or his couple hundred followers however you wanted to look at it. I was pumped as hell for this day since it was rare that I got spend time with just Doug and Tom together with nobody else. Those were some of my favorite days because you get the three of us together and it’s pretty much asking for trouble. We went down to the lobby and saw that there was a car waiting for us to take us to the mall. We had contacted an Uber around half an hour ago to take us where we needed. I rarely ever needed to do things like this because I had my own car or I would just ask Happy but we didn’t have either of those things here. I looked at the mall in awe of everything and got out of the car seeing the theme park already. I bounced on the tips of my toes and smiled when my boyfriends had the same expressions that I did looking around at everything in awe. 

“Okay this is going to take way more time than I originally thought there’s no wonder they call this place one of the biggest malls in the US.” Elliot said already going through the double doors and I followed him looking below at the theme park seeing the people go screaming by on the Rock Bottom Plunge knowing that would be me later.

“So you can both text me when you’re done shopping and you can ride some rides with us since you have the tickets to get in. Just let me know so we’re not wandering around because their section of direction is about as bad as mine.” I joked since I had one of the worst visual spatial problems of my friend group thanks to the joys of Aspergers. 

“We’ll be fine okay baby? Just go and have fun with Tom and Doug for now and we’ll join you this afternoon. That way you’re not too overwhelmed and you’ll have the opportunity to ride some rides with them during their three days off.” I nodded giving both of my boyfriends a kiss before taking the elevator down to the theme park seeing Tom and Doug just getting inside and it had started snowing so Doug shook it out of his hair while Tom just laughed at him.

“Hi guys!!” I waved to them with my dress on and they both hugged me instantly. 

“Look at you, you look so cute!!” Tom dotted and gave me an individual hug to which I easily hugged back my old friend. 

“Thank you, I love this so much Pepper got it for me I’m surprised that she even remembered how much I loved this character. I hope that there is somewhere I can put my jacket though because it would be a pain in the neck to carry it around with me from ride to ride.” I told them and Doug just smiled at me giving me one more hug even though I had only seen them a few days ago. 

“I happen to think that every place should have a coat rack so they definitely should or lockers something along those lines.” He shrugged openly and I smiled at my friends bouncing on the tips of my feet in excitement hardly waiting to go inside and ride some of these insanely fun looking rides.

“They’re definitely going to have lockers I don’t know if your coat rack is really the best idea Doug. What if it fell or what if it got stolen?” Tom asked with a joking eyebrow raised and I laughed at the two of them as they started their game of playfully bickering back and forth.

“I’m really excited so can we just go in please? I want to go and do some crazy rides. A lot of these look like they’re not going to be Jeremy’s thing he’s not a big ride kind of guy a lot of them will probably make him sick.” I sighed deeply with a small smile remembering our trip to Disney World and how we had to split up and he rode some of the softer things with Pepper while me and my dad basically spent the entire five days having daddy and daughter days. 

“We’ll be able to do a lot of things with your boyfriends don’t you worry about that. Come on let’s all go and get checked in.” Tom ruffled my hair gently as I followed him with Doug next to me. I saw Tom got recognized instantly right off the bat and I turned to my old friend. 

“Have you ever wanted that? To be recognized instead of just playing the character?” I asked my friend and he sighed with a small smile on his face as he watched Tom do the Spongebob laugh. 

“Tom has always been a people person, he loves being that center of attention and working the crowd. It’s not a bad thing it’s one of the first things that I grew to admire about him and his sense of being. That’s not me though and that can’t ever be me. I’m comfortable where I’m at you know? I’ve got fans that know my name and they all know my character so all I have to do is my evil laugh and they’ll know who I am. I’m not hungry for fame though that’s just my thing and neither was Tom but it just kind of fell into our laps especially his since he plays the main character and became the face of Nickelodeon.” I listened to my friend as he smiled at our leading man as he waved us over to where he was standing. 

“Alright Doug, I know you’re not a big fan of being in the spotlight but could you please do the laugh just this once?” Tom begged him and I could see the smirk on my friends face. He always loved it when people asked him to do the laugh since it was one of those things that he gave to his character that meant the most to him as a villain. He did the laugh and it was like everybody around us just turned to him with wide eyes. 

“How did you do that mister?” One of the little boys who couldn’t have been more than six years old stood in front of him and his mom was right behind him. 

“Well you see young man I play Plankton.” He did the last part in his character voice and it was like he just blew this kids mind out of the water and Tom got down on his level. 

“Don’t worry though, he’s not here to the krabby patty formula because me and Abby are here to protect it!!” He did the Spongebob laugh and his character voice while the boys eyes widened when he recognized me. 

“You were on Sesame Street the other day weren’t you miss?” I nodded my head getting down on the little boys level. 

“Yes I was, I’ve known these two since I was thirteen and they changed my life forever. I love them so much they’re pretty much my uncles now. Would you like to get pictures with us?” I asked him and he nodded his head enthusiastically at us as his mom only stood to the side and smiled. 

“What’s your name little boy?” Tom asked him and he smiled brightly at somebody he probably spent a good portion of his short life looking up to. 

“It’s Russell and today is my birthday!! I love Spongebob so much it’s probably my favorite show in the history of the world aside from Rise of TMNT.” The little boy bounced up and down on the tops of his feet and I could see the sparkle in Doug’s eyes that meant he was about to say something to Russell.

“Well happy birthday kiddo, I take it that you are turning six?” I asked him and he nodded his head excitedly and I instantly loved his enthusiasm for life. 

“You know Rus, this girl over here her name is Abigail Stark but we’ve been calling her Abby for short since we met her she’s going to be playing a new character named Lizzy on Rise. Remember that moment in the final episode that just aired yesterday where you saw a turtle with freckles running and she had bright pink guns? That’s going to be her character.” I nodded my head at him with a small smile painted on my face pushing a lock of hair behind my ear. 

“That’s absolutely right I’m going to be the newest member of the turtle family. I even created that character myself when I was thirteen and the version that got me into the show first came out in 2012.” I explained to him and the boy let out this big gappy toothy smile at me. 

“That’s so cool!! I’m sure that you’ll do great!! Has anybody ever told you that you sing like an angel?” I blushed a bright pink at the compliment and he only giggled at me when Tom hoisted him onto his shoulders for the pictures. 

“Yes they have but that doesn’t stop her from being immensely self conscious about it.” Doug teased and I so badly wanted to make him just stop talking because he wasn’t making things any better for me. The mom took some pictures and I just stuck with a closed mouth natural smile so that my gap wouldn’t show. I felt rather awkward about my teeth still as my tongue ran over the gap that was there where a tooth just never grew. 

“Thank you for the pictures, you didn’t have to do that. You probably just made his life, thank you so much for making my son feel better when he’s not feeling well. He has a heart condition that makes it so he has frequent visits to the hospital that’s where he can watch Spongebob and Rise. I think it’s amazing what you voice actors do for the little ones even if they never know your face.” The mom told us and my heart went out to this little boy who was still so cheerful. I got down on his level so that I was eye to eye with him and I could talk to him easier. 

“I know that things might seem hard sometimes but if Spongebob has taught me anything since I was a little bit younger than you are it’s that you should always remain optimistic. You have seen many struggles in your short life but this is why they do the work so that maybe they can make somebody's childhood just that much better. It’s what they did for me when I was lonely or I was being bullied at school for thinking in a different way and being more intelligent than they were. I’m glad that you’re here and that you got to meet them, they’re really something aren’t they? Hey Doug, why don’t you show him how you do the Plankton voice? You might have noticed that it’s not something that just comes out of him naturally since it’s hard for anybody to talk like that.” Russell just gave me a tight hug and I hugged him back as Doug got down on his level too. 

“See what I have to do is squeeze my larax a certain way it’s the muscle that’s down there in your throat and make this air pocket on my left side and then you have Plankton.” He demonstrated for the little boy as he looked at him in sheer awe. 

“You are amazing!! That is by far the most amazing thing that I have ever seen in my entire life!! Thank you so much for meeting me and taking pictures with me. You two mean so much to me since Spongebob and Plankton are my two favorite characters.” Russell told me and I smiled at the little boy wanting nothing more than to just adopt him for my own and give him all the medical treatment that he needed to live a full life. 

"They were my favorites too when I was around your age. When I first saw him do that it pretty much blew my mind it was really suriel. I think that you’ll make it though kiddo you’re strong and you just have to hope that one day you’ll get one hundred percent better. I’m sorry if it sounds really awful of me to say but it’s the truth and I firmly believe that you are going to feel better one day.” I hugged the little boy tightly and he hugged me back too.

“Do you want to go on a ride with us maybe? We can take an easy one for starters so that it’s not too overwhelming.” Doug asked the sickly little boy and he nodded his head enthusiastically. 

“Yeah why don’t you pick where we go first Rus? This is going to be the Best Day Ever.” I laughed at Tom as he found a way to quote his own character as Russell led us to the Guppy Bubbler where it was basically a gondola ride.

“Okay I can start here this sounds like a fun ride. Alright who’s riding with me and who’s riding with Russell?” I asked the two voice actors who both instantly pointed at me to ride with Russell. 

“You should ride with him honey, I think that he likes you. It’ll be great for you to interact with somebody else other than us for right now. We’ll be able to ride all the other ones together today.” Doug told me and I nodded my head at the voice actor getting down on eye level with the little boy.

“Is it okay if I ride with you Russell? You can still ride with them if you want to but I’d enjoy it if you rode with me.” I smiled at him and he nodded his head excitedly as he got on the ride with me and his mom who had been following us. 

“So you’re an actress? How long have you wanted to do that?” The mom asked me and I smiled softly looking at her son as he was so excited to just look at everything that he could see. 

“I’ve pretty much been wanting to join this profession since I was a sophomore in high school. I went through grades and college really quickly since I was constantly taking full time classes which were more like part time for me because my brain is really advanced for my age. One of the voice actors that I had the great pleasure and honor of meeting that day was the one who first planted that idea inside my head that I could be a great actress his name is Rob Paulsen. You probably know him if you watched Animaniacs back in the day he was Yakko Warner. Now I consider him one of my biggest life supporters other than Tom and Doug. They all backed me up when I auditioned for the character that I created last week and I love them more than anything.” I looked over at the two of them as they got into their own ride. I couldn’t believe sometimes that this was the life I got to live in since I had surrounded myself with such incredibly talented people who always had my back no matter what I did. 

“So I have to ask Abby, what’s with the dress?” His mother glared at him and I only threw my head back laughing at just what a pure child this was in front of me. 

“It’s a character from another cartoon that I’m obsessed with though this one didn’t happen to me until early high school. It’s called Invader Zim, you’re a little bit young for it yet but I’m sure that you would probably find it funny. It’s about an overconfident alien that comes to Earth to take over the world on a “secret mission” that his superiors gave him mostly to get rid of his annoyingness. They give him a highly qualified robot that they make from garbage named GIR and that’s who this character is on my dress. He’s a character that I grew up with since then and he’s one that really inspired my sense of humor from that day forward.” I explained to him putting the hood up and seeing the tongue come lolling out of the top and they both looked at me in shock. 

“That is actually insanely cute, is he supposed to be a dog?” Russell asked me and I nodded my head pushing the hood back down as our ride started to go and we moved up the ride and I got to get a good look at everything around me.

“Yes he is supposed to be a mongoose dog because that’s what he asked the main character Zim to be. They are my favorite duo in cartoon history at least in terms of humor and that’s saying a lot since I grew up with Spongebob and Patrick. Do you like Disney movies too? Those are some of my favorites especially Beauty And The Beast to the point where I named my own golden retriever Belle.” I showed him the picture that was set as my lock screen and it was Belle laying on my bed snuggling next to my stuffed animals probably because they smelled like me. 

“Aww isn’t she just precious mom? I have a dog too her name is Sandy and she’s my support dog meaning that every time I go to the hospital she’s right there with me.” I smiled at the sweetheart little boy who cared so much about the rest of the world and it meant so much more to me than just another kid. He was wise beyond his years and I thought that meant something so much more than being obsessed with technology 

“So do you have a favorite episode of Spongebob? Or just a favorite anything that was animated and involves the little sponge?” I asked the young boy who thought about it for a moment and he answered with what I least expected. 

“I would have to say that I really love Bubble Man, The Band episode and Imagination one. What about you?” He asked me and I smiled at my new buddy that I had made since most of mine were the same. 

“I’m the same way just add the Hash Slinging Slasher episode and that’s pretty much me. I’m surprised that you mentioned mostly classic episodes those are some of the funniest and most charming characters. You do know about Stephen Hillenburg right? It’s awful.” I asked the little boy who cocked his head to the side a little bit confused. 

“No I don’t, is he sick?” I nodded my head sighing deeply but still smiling somewhat. 

“Yeah and he’s not going to get better but it’s okay. I mean I’m not ready for him to go far from it, I’ve known him since I’ve known those two clowns down there and he taught me how to play my guitar that I played on Sesame Street. I love him like my uncle those two are pretty much my brother’s.” I pushed up my glasses and smiled softly to myself even though he was sick I was feeling a bit better about it because I had people in my life that would continue to be there for me no matter what.

“Aren’t you sad though? That he’s going away and you won’t ever be able to see him again?” I nodded my head sighing deeply as the tears came to my eyes but I knew that crying over it again wasn’t going to do me any personal favors.

“Of course I’m going to miss him. I’ll miss making him laugh and following him around the old studios when he would show me around on my days off of school and getting to hang out with all the popular voice actors that changed my life completely but I think most of all I’ll miss his smile. It’s something so simple but it was so infectious and when he smiled it just made me feel better. It’s hard knowing that someone you love isn’t going to make it through this struggle but I have to learn that being a crybaby about it isn’t going to do me or him any favors in the future. I’ve cried so many times at the thought that he wasn’t going to make it but at the same time it’s never enough. I can’t cry anymore about it and I have to be strong enough to show the rest of the world that they can’t push me around.” I heard my phone buzz from my pocket looking at it and seeing that Josh had texted me but I could check it once we were off the ride.

“That’s a very adult way of thinking about things from your age Abigail. Death is never an easy thing especially with everything that has to be going on in your life right now this probably just the cherry on top of the sundae isn’t it?” I nodded my head stoically as Russell just looked at me with wide eyes.   
“That’s right, you don’t have a daddy right now do you? They said that he was… abducted right mommy? That’s the right word?” I nodded my head trying very hard to keep the tears from just spilling over. 

“Yeah he was taken from me and I have no idea where he is or if I’ll ever even see him again. The person that raised me from five years old onwards is no longer there to make sure that I’m doing well. The really sad thing is that he isn’t here to see my acting career really take off he was one of those people who no matter what had faith in me that I could do it. I wanted for him to see the first time that I put those headphones on and played this character since he always believed that Rob would come through for me which he always did.” I told them fiddling with the hood of my dress wishing that he was here so I could finally show him Invader Zim after all these years of me talking about it. 

“I’m sure that he’ll be fine!! One day he’ll come back to you and he’ll be so proud of all that you’ve done while he was away.” Russell told me excitedly as we stopped at the top and saw the little puppy that the bottom sign warned us about before getting on the ride. 

“You’re probably right, I’m sorry it’s just not really the best subject matter for me right now. I try not to talk about it…” I smiled softly at the look of wonder on his face as he reached his hand out for the puppy. 

“My mommy says that if I don’t tell her when I’m hurting then she’ll never know. We’re not mind readers otherwise that would be weird. You have to tell people when you’re struggling otherwise they’ll never know that you are and if you just keep everything to yourself and cry alone than you’ll never really feel better.” I was surprised at just how wise this little boy had seemed to be as the we started to go back down the ride. 

“I know but it’s harder for me since I have my own mental health issues and I worry about being a burden on everybody around me. I’d rather just deal with all this emotional baggage on my own and they can know when I eventually just crack which has thankfully yet to happen. 

“But if you do that honey then you’re not really living. Trust me, I know these things for a fact when I have a hard day at the hospital where I work as a nurse and come home to my husband who is at home today I always have to talk with him honestly about my day. I’ve learned the hard way to never get close to patients because you never really know when they’re going to pass away.” His mom advised me and I knew that she was right and the only person that I was currently hurting was myself. The ride technician let us off and I hugged the little boy tightly wishing that for once this universe would be kind to somebody who had suffered so much. 

“Stay strong okay kiddo? As long as you do that you can get through anything at all. I wish you the happiest of lives and that it is indeed a long and fruitful one.” I encouraged the little boy who just hugged me right back. 

“You stay strong too, don’t forget to lean on people. It’s obvious that you have people in your life that love you more than anything in the entire world so why not just love them right back?” He asked me and I nodded my head waiting for Tom and Doug to come off of their ride. 

“Alright, who’s ready for an actually intense ride now?” Tom asked me and I nodded my head enthusiastically having a quick idea to get something for the little boy to help him remember us. 

“Wait one second okay you two come with me I have an idea.” I waved them over to what I wanted to do as Russell just stood there looking really confused. 

“We’re going to go and raid the gift shop getting him things themed to his favorite shows how does that sound? I want to get him something to remember meeting us by. He’s such a sweet kid and I want to kind of try and do a rushed job of what you two did for me when I was ten.” I told them and they both looked at me in awe before nodding their heads. 

“You know something Abby Cadabby, I don’t think that you can see what an amazing person you are. You always want to do these kinds of things for people even if you haven’t known them for very long you still love so openly with all your heart.” Tom praised giving my hand a light squeeze for comfort and I smiled at one of my oldest friends. 

“He’s right you know? You don’t have to do things like build schools for homeless people to learn things and get more intelligent but you are and you don’t have to buy a bunch of gifts for the boy who is terminally ill but you still want to because there’s this side of you that believes it’s the right thing to do. I say that we go in there and we do this thing.” Doug cracked his knuckles and led the way to where the gift shop was and I instantly went for the Spongebob section. There they had plushies of big and small of just about every character but I wanted to get the Spongebob and Plankton ones for him and find a blanket that he could take with him on trips to the hospital. Tom came over with a Donatello plush but I just shook my head pointing to the Leonardo one towards the top. 

“Something tells me that’s his favorite, he seems like the type who would love the leader who sometimes has to make the hard decisions for his brother’s. It’s hard to be the leader but he probably admires that strength that he has.” I told him and he nodded his head with a small smile on his face. 

“For somebody who says that she’s not that great at reading people you are sure good at reading that kid.” I laughed rolling my eyes at my old friend knowing that he was right since I was really good at reading people that I felt a connection with.

“It’s not that I don’t relate well with other people it’s that for most people it’s hard for me to find that emotional connection with them but for some reason I just bonded with this boy and I want to do something nice for him.” I said confidently as Doug caught up with us gift bag in hand and set of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles themed pajamas. 

“Are you paying for everything or can it be every man for themselves?” He asked me and I thought about it for a moment. 

“Every man for themselves actually sounds kinda good, I’m letting Tom get him the Leonardo plush should I just go and ask him who is favorite one is?” I thought about going out there and just asking him myself when Doug looked at him and back at me. 

“I’m guessing his favorite is actually Michelangelo since that makes the most sense to me because he’s energetic and bouncy.” I face palmed mentally and got the plush handing it to Doug who was looking at the Spongebob pajamas before grabbing one with his face on it and the pineapples on the pants.

“Here we go it’s actually Mikey I didn’t even really think about that but it makes a lot more sense. What else do you think we might need of the cheap useless-junk?” I joked instantly thinking of Invader Zim and he just laughed at me. 

“I think that this is everything that he’s going to want in his life, you and Doug should split your haul in half.” I nodded my head finding the voice actor looking at some of the Plankton merchandise which wasn’t really a lot. 

“Want to go halfsies on this since it’s going to be from all of us?” I asked him showing him everything that I had picked out and he nodded taking a chunk of the items and I hoped that our bag was big enough. We paid for everything and I got more massive props from the cahier on my dress as we tried to put everything into the bag. I smiled to myself holding the Mikey plush as I saw the little boy who had just gotten off the ride again and I went over to him with the voice actors behind me who were holding the bag. 

“Hey Russell, we have a surprise for you okay? But you have to close your eyes for me to make the surprise a full on one.” Doug told him with his kind brown eyes emoting perfectly to what this little boy should be doing as he did what he was told. I cleared my throat getting ready to sing him the happy birthday song with two of my closest friends. His eyes widened when he opened his eyes at the end of the song and saw what we did for him and I saw that his mom had tears in her eyes. 

“Happy birthday Russell, we hope that it’s your best one yet from your friends, Spongebob, Plankton and Abby.” He read the card that we had written for him on the gift bag as he hugged each one of us individually.

“I think that this is by far one of the nicest things that anybody has ever done for him. You three really are something quite special there and I think that you all are amazingly talented actors and actress. He’s having open heart surgery that could either make things better or worse depending on how it goes and I wanted to take him to this place for one last adventure just to be careful.” I could see that the mom had tears in her eyes and I looked at this strong little boy who I knew would kick this heart disease in the mouth. 

“I am a lot like Spongebob in the case that I am a never ending optimist and I am of the firm belief that you will come out of that surgery tomorrow feeling better than ever Rus. You will be strong enough and learn to be yourself with other people and everyone will flock to you because I can see that you’re a good person and friend.” Tom told the little boy in his Spongebob voice and I saw the boy in question start tearing up tears of joy. I waved goodbye to him and his mom as they went off to do more things in the mall or in the amusement park. 

“Alright you two, who wants to do the flying dutchman obstacle course?” Doug asked and I nodded my head but pointed to the Avatar ride that I had seen coming up the entrance.

“That right there looks absolutely insane but as an Airbender I know that I need to try it. I know Jeremy says that I’m a Waterbender but in my personal opinion I think I have the playfulness of an air nomad in my blood.” I joked and they both laughed at me but Tom ruffled my hair softly. 

“Okay we follow Abby’s lead to the crazy ride, you got your screams ready Doug? I have a feeling that this is going to be a screaming ride.” He joked teasing his friend since the man in question had the tendency to scream like Plankton usually for jokes. 

“Oh I have my screams ready to go alright, lead the way GIR.” He told me and I smiled at my two oldest friends as I led the way to the ride hearing screams of sheer joy until it was our turn and we all got strapped in to our seats. 

“Having second thoughts there Tom?” I teased my friend as he looked up at what we would be doing and he just shook himself trying to psyche himself up. 

“Of course not, if you can do this than so can I. What about you Doug?” I looked at the long haired voice actor who had a somewhat nervous smile on his face. 

“I’m rather nervous but I also know that this ride won’t kill me so once it starts I’ll be fine and screaming my head off along with everyone else on this car.” He laughed to himself as the ride started and we went down the first drop feeling the gush of air that caused me to let out a fit of giggles as we rode the air currents. It was indeed a screaming ride and I let out a harsh one when we suddenly were going upside down gripping the ends of the harness but at the same time I got used to it pretty easily. I stepped off the ride a little bit dizzy but still able to handle myself looking around for more rides to test out. 

“I say that we do the obstacle course with my boyfriends this afternoon since this is Jeremy we’re talking about he’s a bit of a chicken.” I joked and they both laughed at me as Doug struggled to get his long hair back under control. 

“Okay I get to take the next ride and I say that we try out the Fairly Odd Coaster.” I nodded my head in agreement even though I wasn’t the hugest fan of Fairly Odd Parents that ride did look fun.

“Fine, I’m game I can do that what about you Doug? What do you want your first ride choice to be?” I asked him and he looked around at all the names before pointing in the general direction of Shredder’s Mutant Masher. 

“Alright that’s going to be a crazy spinning ride one of my favorite things. As long as you’re a good spotter it means that you can’t get that dizzy.” I promised mostly myself following my two old friends to the rides that they wanted to go on. We spent most of that morning riding intense rides and then once Jeremy and Elliot joined us after lunch we took it a lot easier doing the kiddy rides and my personal favorite the obstacle course where I got to bounce around. The rest of my vacation was spent buying way too many things that I thought were cute mostly clothes and I would probably have to raid my wardrobe once I got home but walking around with my two boyfriends I couldn’t care less about what was happening back in California.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi all!! Sorry this took so long for me to update, it seems that I'm going through that phase where I'm getting ideas and just not finishing them no matter what I do. I like to think it's because my brain runs in a different way but maybe I'm just too much of a spazz. Anyways, I hope that you enjoy this chapter and if it's not obvious I have been rewatching Invader Zim a lot lately actually with my parents and they're enjoying the hell out of it because how can you not??


	5. Chapter five

I looked into the room having an icee in hand and nervously tapping my foot trying to gain enough courage to walk through the doors. I was on the floor where they were working on Invader Zim but for the strangest reason I was feeling way more nervous about this than I could have ever imagined. If I thought that going inside to get my audition done that was nothing this was the new level of anxiety. What if he wasn’t even there today this would all be for nothing if he wasn’t in yet? It was early afternoon and I had spent the morning with my boyfriends at the park. They had encouraged me to at least get up here by the end of the day but this was something that was easier talking about than actually doing it. I heard a familiar laugh as I left the elevator knowing that had to be Jhonen’s and that didn’t make my nervousness go away in fact it only amplified it when I heard a familiar voice also coming from the same office that sounded just like Kevin McDonald and I so badly just wanted to turn and run back towards the other elevator so I wouldn’t have to deal with this. Belle just gazed up at me softly with her kind brown eyes quietly telling me that I could do this and I gripped the corner of my sketchbook out of a nervous habit looking down and seeing my new lanyard that they had given me with Lizzy on there pointing her guns and I had free access to the entire studio with it.    


“Look don’t gaze at me like that okay? You don’t have anxiety like I do and this is probably one of the biggest moments of my life. God why didn’t I just ask JJ to come up here with me again?” I sighed deeply still not fully in the doors and was about to turn around when I was spotted.    


“Can I help you?” A kind voice asked me and I turned around about to say that I was just leaving when I saw that it was the background artist for Enter The Florpis.    


“Yeah I was just leaving sorry umm wrong floor.” I pushed a nervous lock of hair behind my ear about to turn and just full on run but Belle only looked towards the door like she wanted to go in.    


“Awww that’s a really cute doggie, what’s her name?” She asked me and I glanced down at her while Belle let her ears be rubbed by the artist.    


“Her name is Belle is sort of have a Beauty And The Beast problem and when I got her that’s the first thing that stuck in my mind.” I told her and she looked up at me reading my name tag that was attached to my lanyard.    


“Oh I know who you are!! Abigail Stark you’re the newest actress for the Rise crew aren’t you? I don’t think that you’re at the wrong floor though judging by your hoodie you knew exactly where you were going, it’s adorable by the way where did you get it?” I looked down realizing that I was indeed still wearing my Gir hoodie so I was pretty much screwed and couldn’t get out of this.    


“So that umm might have been a lie? I was just too nervous to go in. I got it at a geeky shop in New York I didn’t catch the name of it sorry.” Dammit why didn’t I just bring JJ with me? He even offered to show me around this part of the studios if I had just had him bring me up here than I wouldn’t be in this situation. This was the only floor that we hadn’t been allowed to see since we didn’t have full passes only to see specific floors and this was one of the ones that is strictly cut off unless you happen to work here. I knew when I heard her laugh that I should probably just turn around and start pulling Belle with me whether she wanted to go or not.    


“Oh that’s funny, a Stark being nervous about something. Honey there is no need to be nervous. If you’re here to talk with Jhonen he does have Kevin in his office at the moment but the door is open so they can’t be talking about anything important over there. You know he has social issues too right? Plus he loves your Twitter polls that one with Purple and Red really had him going.” I shook my head because I had no idea that he also suffered from social anxiety but that did make me feel a little bit better.    


“I’m pretty much nervous about everything especially this since I’ve loved his work since high school and he’s one of two creators that helped define my personality I should have really brought Amy with me my friend who got me into the show originally when the audio was released and I’m talking a lot sorry this happens when I’m nervous I’ll stop in three two one.” I blushed a hot pink having talked so much that it was probably really weird to see a shy small bean child talking about her favorite creator of cartoons other than the one that she had known pretty much an entire decade. 

“It’s okay Abigail it’s actually kind of intriguing how often does that happen?” She sat on the floor next to me and I looked at her name tag since her own name escaped me. That was right it was Jenny now I remembered that from watching her interviews talking about the art on Enter The Florpis.    


“It happens pretty much whenever I get so nervous that I let down my defenses or I get close enough to the person that I trust them not to think that I’m a weirdo. I’m just glad that Belle over here can’t understand English otherwise she would probably be sending me really strange looks whenever it happened.” I joked and my dog just gave me this soft look that told me she wouldn’t do that at all. 

“Tell you what kiddo, why don’t I take you to where Jhonen’s office back here? You can get the full look around later if you need to go somewhere fast they’re probably just setting up outside or downstairs for your introduction video right?” I nodded my head because for some strange reason they were really adamant to film outside today.    


“You don’t have to do that I could just come back when I’m having less anxiety. Sorry if I stood there looking like a creeper I don’t know how many times I told myself to just go through the doors.” I laughed a little bit to myself at just how pathetic my anxiety could be sometimes and she only smiled at me offering me a hand up.    


“You weren’t standing there like a creeper I just thought okay this girl looks either really lost or like she wants to come in but is too nervous to. Looks like I was right about one thing just a little nervous girl who was about to meet her idol. I’ll bet that you’re excited to get into the booth though right?” I nodded my head fervently picking up my sketchbook making sure that I had the art that I had actually made over the weekend with Pleakley and Purple trying on different wigs together. I had thought of the idea the other day once he had won the poll by a landslide.    


“I’m immensely excited to get behind the booth since I have spent most of my life loving this art form and wanting to be a member of it myself. Now that I actually have a chance in being a member of the fandom that I absolutely love it’s like I need someone to pinch me since I’m dreaming. It went from a nightmare to a dream in the span of only a couple of days.” I laughed to myself as Jenny held the door open for me and I walked through it seeing everyone working in cubicles and at the front there was a standup of Zim evilly laughing and I entirely wasn’t surprised to see GIR in his adorable little dog suit at the bottom.    


“You said that you didn’t start watching until high school? Were you too young when it first came out?” I nodded my head with a small smile on my face at the memory of seeing Zim for the first time and instantly thinking that he would become one of the characters to change my life.    


“That’s right, I was banned from even watching Fairly Odd Parents not that I really cared but there was no way that my dad would have approved of me watching Invader Zim since I was maybe five when the show first came out on reruns. I met one of my friends from drama classes back when I was still in high school she introduced me to the show and told me that I basically had to watch it because it was a crime against cartoon law that I hadn’t watched it yet.” I laughed at the memory of one of my first interactions with the spaz that was one of my few friends I had leftover from high school. 

“That’s actually really funny, come on his office is right this way.” She led me to the door where I saw the familiar figure that helped me fall into my teenage years.   


“Jhonen? You have a visiter she was just standing at the glass doors and she kept coming and walking back she’s not a stalker don’t worry!!” I was so embarrassed at this point that I was contemplating the idea of just running away but as Belle walked forward so did I since she was kind of pulling me and for the first time that I met her she actually sent me a not so kind look. It looked like she was telling me ‘listen here you little chickenshit you are going to walk through that door and talk to your idol even if it kills me.’ I followed her through the door my head down as I pushed back a lock of my hair nervously.    


“Oh your Abigail? I wasn’t expecting for you to come up here so quickly, JJ told me about his new leading actress. And oh my god your sweatshirt is adorable!! Where did you get it?” The instant I walked through the door I felt somehow more at ease than I did outside.    


“Well thank heavens he did otherwise this would be really awkward for me to have to introduce myself to you. I’m not that great at meeting people’s work that I admire if I’m by myself. JJ offered to come with me but for some odd reason stupid me decided no what’s the worst that could happen. I got to the front glass doors and was suddenly hit by this atomic bomb of anxiety. I guess I have to introduce myself to you though since I did kind of barge in here sorry about that. I’m Abigail Stark newest voice actress down at Rise.” I introduced myself to Kevin as he looked at me before the last name officially registered on him.    


“I actually got this in New York last week when I was visiting there because I got offered to be on Sesame Street my boyfriends wanted to go out shopping and we saw this shop that had all these different shops that were independent and this was one of them. I wish I could remember what the name of it was to see if they had a shop for online users but I was too overwhelmed by everything going on at the time. I was so nervous about what was going to happen the next day that when I saw this I knew that I need it. I didn’t get around to watching it until high school when one of my closest friends from drama class told me that I had to watch it in order to be friends with her since she referenced it so much. I wasn’t old enough when it first came out and my dad had already banned Fairly Odd parents from being watched.” I laughed to myself pushing a lock of hair behind my ear as Belle just looked at me softly as if she was proud of me for getting this far through the introductions.    


“Really? Fairly Odd parents? I guess he was really overprotective over you huh?” Kevin asked me and I nodded my head making a fifty fifty motion with my hand as Jhonen just watched as I told my story.    


“Not really I mean that was the one and only show that was banned from the household. He thought that it was this terrible influence on my own life and looking back on it I completely agree. It wasn’t like he had strict rules and regulations or anything like that since action cartoons were completely allowed otherwise I would have imagined all those hours of sitting and watching Teen Titans eating carrots after school.” I told them and Belle hopped up onto my lap licking my face gently as I laughed at her.    


“This is my dog Belle, I just got here a few weeks ago from a friend of mine Greg Cipes over at Teen Titans Go. He got her for me so that I wouldn’t be lonely anymore since after my dad left I kind of hit this dark spot.” I introduced them to my dog as she just gently barked at them not at all intimidating just her saying hello. 

“Awww she’s just a sweetheart and a good little pupper. I can tell that you two are really close, so can I ask you why you came up here? I thought that you would be really busy though I was looking forward to talking with you in person.” Jhonen asked me petting my dogs ears softly as her tail wagged up and down.    


“I mostly just wanted to come up here to talk with you because I’ve idolized your work all throughout high school and it taught me so much both about myself and the world around me. I’ve been wanting to meet you for so long in my life because you inspired my art style so much and helped me learn to fit in with most of my friends since they’re all nerds and quote this show all the time. This sketch comes with me through every new sketchbook and I’ve been wanting to give it to you since I made it because it just means that much to me.” I gave him the sketch that I had made and he looked at it before a bright laugh left him.    


“This is amazing, I get a lot of fanart from people like you but this one might be my favorite right now. It means a lot to me since you obviously put a lot of thought into this drawing. You know something, you remind me a lot like GIR mixed with Zim.” I laughed at the creator as he put the sketch up on his wall with all the other drawings that were made by fans.    


“I get that from my best friend a lot of the time, she loves to compare me to the evilly adorable main character because she says that when I get started on a tech project I look like him on little sleep. I act like GIR because of my ADHD and my attention span is rather short because I can go from doing one thing to doing an entirely different thing a minute later. I love their characters so much, I have to ask where did the inspiration for the Tallest come from?” I asked him and he sat down spinning so that he could face me and Kevin.    


“I wanted to make these two characters who were pretty much the “rulers” of the Irkan community but they were terrible at their jobs and pretty much just sat on their fat asses and ate junk food all the time. You know that Kevin was originally going to be Red right?” I shook my head and turned to the man in question waiting for him to continue the story.    


“It’s true, I wanted to Purple so badly but Wally was originally cast as the character and once we started to actually record lines together Jhonen discovered that the voices were all wrong and he wanted for us to switch roles of course Wally fought him because he wanted to be the one that said the line “it’s not stupid, it’s advanced” but he lost that battle. I love being Purple because he is so much like Pleakley that it wasn’t hard to get into his headspace.” I laughed at the actor since that was my favorite alien from that movie and pretty much the only reason why I watched that movie.    


“I loved Pleakley when I was a little girl he was my favorite!! He makes that entire movie so much better than it ever could have been when I was a little girl since it was never really my favorite. I had a thing for stories about characters that I related to and I never really related to any of them except for Pleakley, speaking of which this is for you. I wasn’t expecting to see you up here but I’m glad that I bought this one with me because it’s one of my favorites that I’ve made so far.” I gave the sketch to the actor who only looked at it and let out a laugh of sheer joy turning it so that Jhonen could see it.    


“This is amazing, you truly have a gift for character art. I’ll bet that if Enter The Florpis was still in development art like this would have gotten her hired on the spot pretty much right?” He asked his old friend who nodded his head as he gestured for the book which I gave to him reaching over my dog who was still situated on my lap.    


“Of course it would, it’s rare that I just met somebody with this much talent right off the bat usually they have to be trained in character art and interaction but with things like this she would already make a killer storybook artist and animator. I’m sure that she’s happy with where she is on Rise right now though right?” I nodded my head enthusiastically as he continued to look at the art that I had made. 

“Oh hell yeah, I mean I’m really excited to get to work in the voice acting industry since that has been my dream since I met Rob when I was ten years old and he showed me how to do the voice of Yakko properly. The industry alone means so much to me and I’ve made so many friends through it but at the end of the day that was my goal in life was to put on those headphones and become another person. I thankfully get to work off of Josh Brener their Donatello since if it was just me it would have probably been a lot harder for me. We’re all going to be there to record so it’s going to be probably crazy hectic but at the same time that’s kind of why we work in the business. I’ve loved and admired the people so much that when I think about me finally being an official voice actress I just want to laugh at a younger me who thought it was an impossible dream.” I pushed a stray hair behind my ear with a small smile on my face at the fact that this was my life and I was actually here sitting in Jhonen Vasquez’s personal office while they were making his vision come to life. 

“How did you meet Rob Paulsen? That sounds like quite the story if I know him. He comes up here sometimes too mostly to talk about you.” I smiled at the fact that he cared so much about me that he would come up here strictly to talk to my icon about my personal life. 

“I met him when I had my tenth birthday. So one of my two boyfriends now Jeremy, he’s the one that’s on the base holding me up there a little bit of a show off but I love him he’s amazing. Him and my dad for once teamed up and got us passes to the old Nickelodeon Hotel that used to be up in Orlando back in the day. I was ten when the 2012 Ninja Turtles first aired and my love for Donnie was at an all time high. Even though he was my favorite before Rob really brought his character to new heights for me and gave me something else to relate to entirely. Jeremy invited all my favorite voice actors to come up to Orlando so that I could meet them and we’ve been good friends ever since. He invited Tom Kenny, Doug Lawrence, Carolyn Lawrence, of course Rob Paulsen and of course Stephen Hillenburg as well as Ciro Nieli. That last one was the one that I had the hardest time getting close to because I was just too starstruck and I think too young to really know how to deal with talking to somebody that I admired so much. With all the other actors they were so down to earth and constantly asking me questions to try and get to know me better. I don’t know what I would do without their profound influence in my life. I mean it’s because of Rob that I’m up here right now he’s the one that got me the job but not only that he taught me how to deal with talking to people that I admire by simple telling me that they were people too.” I explained a bit of my backstory of how I had met all those voice actors within the span of a weekend and then gone to Disney World.    


“Are those your boyfriends? You guys look super cute together, what’s the name of the other boy?” Jhonen asked me and I knew that he was talking about Elliot as Belle barked as if trying to tell him what his name was. I laughed at my dog for just being so adorable and she just nuzzled my neck gently and lovingly.    


“His name is Elliot, I’ve only known him for a couple of weeks but he’s just as amazing as Jeremy is in just a little bit of a different way. I spent most of my childhood in love with Jeremy but thinking that I could never have him but when I finally did I had already developed an interest in Elliot so we decided to try a polyamorous relationship. So far it’s actually working out amazingly well, we have our fair share of problems mostly on my end since my life at home isn’t exactly the best at the moment but it’s getting better the more stuff I wind up handling on my own without asking for help since I’m too scared to do that.” I moved my hair behind my ear as my phone buzzed and I looked down to see who wanted me and where they wanted me to be.    


_ Rob: Paging Miss Abigail Stark, paging miss Abigail Stark we need you outside in five minutes. Wherever you are you might want to leave now so that you can get down here in time.  _   


“I’m sorry but I’ve got to go, Rob is nagging at me to get my butt downstairs for the video interview and magazine. This is going to be fun for me girl with Aspergers in front of a bunch of cameras oh boy. I figured that this would have happened since I’m new to the industry and a Stark. They’ll probably think it’s really weird.” Belle looked like she didn’t want to leave but I had to gently pull on her leash to get her up off my lap.    


“Good girl, she seems like an absolute sweetie.” Kevin complimented and gently ruffled her ears.    


“She is if she likes you, she normally loves everyone unless you personally insult me. The only person that she absolutely does not like is Obadiah my dad’s business partner who’s trying to steal his job.” Jhonen let out a low whistle at just the sheer dynamics of my family life.    


“Sounds stressful, but you should be happy that you’re working hard to get what you want. Your dad would be proud of you I think since you’re accomplishing your dreams. Come and visit me up here anytime you want to my door is almost always open nowadays that the movie is still in production. Mostly now we’re just editing and trimming things down thank god.” I laughed at my new friend as I waved to both of them on my way out the door I sighed. That had actually gone really well and I wasn’t that stressed out actually. I reached into my backpack to grab a doggie treat for my baby so that she could know that she did a good job too.    


“Good girl, you did so well thank you for helping me get my butt in there even though I’m a shy small bean child. I love you so much.” I told my dog and she only ran her tongue around her lips as if to reply to me that she loved me too but wanted her treat more. I laughed at knelt down giving it to her as we walked down the hall to the elevators. I pressed the lobby level and felt another bolt of anxiety start to creep up my spine but I also knew that I would be okay with Rob there to guide me through everything. When the elevator dinged and I saw all the news people in the lobby probably here to ask me questions like what was I doing at a voice acting studio and what I personally was thinking. 

“Oh that’s just freaking fantastic, alright deep breaths Belle and please even though I’m overwhelmed I’ll be alright.” I promised my dog and she just whimpered at me like she was nervous too. I walked out of the elevator just bracing myself for impact of about a dozen reporters all wanting a story about Abigail Stark, certifiable genius working at a lowly animation company.    


“Miss Stark, how are you feeling now that your father has left you for good?” One of the male reporters asked me and I braced myself for the impact that was bound to happen. 

“He isn’t gone for good. At least that’s not what I personally think. My dad is smart and he’ll find his way back to me no matter what the costs.” I promised them and took another deep breath as cameras flashed hopefully leaving the gap between my teeth out of them.    


“But you haven’t heard anything else other than the fact that he’s gone?” A female reporter asked me and I nodded my head slowly looking around to see if Rob was anywhere at all.    


“No I haven’t heard any news that involves him being found and I know that I would be the first person that my uncle Rhodey will call when he is found.” I pushed up my glasses onto my face standing confidently and definitely in front of all the reporters questioning me.    


“So would you say that you depressed now that your father is gone? Is that why you are taking such a lowly job making stupid animated cartoons for kids?” The same male reporter from earlier asked me and Belle only growled at him for opening his mouth again. I only gently petted her fur to let her know that I was okay and that I had this situation under control.    


“Tell me, mister Brian is that your name Brian?” I asked him in clarification and he only nodded his head stoically ata me.    


“How long has it been since you have taken pride in anything at all? I take pride in the people who work in animation do and have wanted to be one of them since I was five years old and came across Spongebob Squarepants. I take pride in my work as an animation lover and artist myself since I know how hard all these people work. One of my greatest idols is upstairs in his office right now working on his magnum opus a televised movie about his cartoon Invader Zim Jhonen Vasquez. He’s losing sleep because he’s just constantly working and putting forth probably more effort than you could by simple being a lowly bottom feeder asking insulting questions to people who would rather be doing anything else than giving you a statement.” I pushed my way past all the other reporters until I as outside seeing a thankfully much smaller group of people standing around and waiting for me.    


“I’m sorry I’m late Rob I was bombarded by reporters inside, somehow they found out that I was working here and had a lot of invasive questions for me. I just had to give one of them scorched earth because he asked me if I was depressed and that was why I had to take such a “lowly job” like what even is a lowly job is this world? Every job has some level of importance and especially the people who work in animation.” I ran a hand through my hair and Rob only hugged me tightly to which I of course hugged him back.    


“I tried them to go away sunshine you got to believe me when I say that. I knew that you wouldn’t be in the best of moods to have to confront the media after all these years. The last time that she had to do that Tony was in the hospital for a drug overdose when she was eleven not really his best year. He got really hassled at work, he didn’t think that he was good enough of a father to raise Abby everything just hit a high that year and he tried to take his own life. He of course got better and sobered up after Abby quite literally clocked him in the back of the head for being an utter dumbass. What did you tell them about the animation industry? I heard the name of a certain Jhonen, is that where you were up in the Invader Zim section?” He was thankfully really good with me in moments like this and took it in stride even with a soft tone of voice and a kind hearted smile. 

“Yeah it took me some pushing to even get through the doors I was so nervous. Jenny his art director had to help me find his office and talk me into going in and actually talking to him. He was really great though Rob, everything that I imagined he would be and more. He loved my artwork even joked that one day I should work with him and Kevin was up there too so I got to give him his Purple and Pleakley that I made for him. I’m proud of myself for going up there without you pushing me to do so he was really great and he told me to come up and visit him any time.” I smiled at him and he hugged me tightly before letting me go and I looked around at everything that was happening around me. There was a bunch of cameras and one interviewer thankfully who would be nice and kind to me.    


“Well I’m proud of you too there sunshine it looks like you’ve been busting your ass off to work with other people. Okay so here’s how this going to work, we’re doing the interview first which shouldn’t take that long.” I nodded my head and moved over to where the interviewer was.    


“Hi I’m Mackenzie, I’ll be your interviewer thankfully this will be quick. Okay so what inspired you to come here today?” She asked me and I sat down on the stool next to her as the man took pictures of me for the Nickelodeon magazine.    


“Well I was adopted when I was five and grew up sitting in front of the television watching cartoons. The first one that I ever saw was Spongebob Squarepants since we didn’t have television at the orphanage I grew up in. I remember the first time I saw that yellow sponge it looked like something out of a dream. It meant the absolute world to me since he was so optimistic and a sweetheart. Animation gave me something to relate to during my childhood since live action was too boring for me to deal with.” I laughed at my memories that I had of dealing with the yellow sponge. 

“Okay that’s actually really sweet, what’s the Nickelodeon show that has had the greatest impact on your life other than Spongebob?” I smiled to myself looking at Rob who was holding my hoodie in his hands.    


“That would have to be Invader Zim, that show changed my entire perspective of how I deal with life. It showed me how to laugh at things that are stupid even if you can look at the show now I think that it’s tied with Spongebob. I am obsessed with Invader Zim even rewatching it now teaching me how to deal with people even if sometimes it’s doing the opposite that I think that Dib was created to show the audience how not to interact with others. Zim is my personal favorite though GIR is the most iconic one and a lot of people love love him even though sometimes people overlook him even if he’s the main character. A lot of people don’t really understand my love for it but it meant the world to me even if I watched it in high school. It’s still easily the most quotable cartoon amongst me and my best friends.” I informed her and she smiled at me writing it down on her notepad.    


“You said earlier that you are an artist can we take some pictures of it to show our readers?” I nodded my head and gave her my sketchbook that I had in my hands and her assistant took pictures of them. 

“She had this incredible Invader Zim that would transfer to every single sketchbook. She tore it out it used to be one of my favorite things to look at because she put so much effort into it. It had all of her favorite characters making this pyramid, I believe it was Gaz, Purple, GIR, Red, Dib and Zim. The last of the two kept arguing over who was going to be at the top of the stack. So Gaz recommends that the two of them play a game of rock paper scissors to see who gets to be at the top of the pile. But, GIR comes to the front and wins the battle.” I laughed at the memory of the picture that was now up in Jhonen’s office.    


“I gave that to Jhonen Vasquez and it’s hanging up in his office right now. It meant a lot to me getting to meet my hero of animation who helped me become more outgoing since Zim fans are crazy. He showed me so much of my own life through Zim and taught me to laugh at things that most people wouldn’t. He defined my sense of humor that I have today and no show has made me laugh harder since.” I moved a lock of hair behind my ear that was on my forehead as they took more pictures of me for the front cover handing me a bo staff.    


“Rob told us that you know how to use this thing so we’re trusting you and this will look really badass.” I laughed at the cameraman getting into position with it and doing my old routine that I used to have with it as the other cameras all started to film it too.    


“She’s kind of multitalented with her other hobbies too, she invented what I had the creators use as the fourteen forty on the show since I showed them a video of her skateboarding and that’s where we got that idea from. She surfs, plays guitar and piano and can do stuff like this it’s crazy.” I blushed under Rob’s praise handing them back the staff as I saw a familiar car start to come through the lot and recognized Josh who was going to be feeding me the questions that the Andy and Andy had written down. That was confusing but I got used to telling the two apart after a time, they were coming in a few minutes after meeting about the new episode that was airing tonight the one that I would be introduced officially in. 

“Okay if you’ll have a seat again we can finish the interview up really quick. How did you get into acting?” She asked me and I sat down in my stool as Josh pulled up the one next to me.    


“I started off just by doing community theater mostly since I moved through grades so fast it was hard for me to stay at one school for more than two years. I only had to do two years of high school before I graduated because I just breezed through the classes much faster. I don’t know why I just didn’t do it online because that would have been done even faster. I loved acting in community theater and my first major role there was Evita Peron when I was thirteen pretty much the smallest Evita known to mankind but I was so proud of myself when my dad saw it and said that it was the best theater that he had ever seen and he still would say that if you asked him. He is my biggest encouragement to why I am able to act today because I remember his advice to me that he gave to me and that was to follow my own dreams since he never could. He never wanted for me to become some head of a big industry but to stand behind a microphone and bring a character to life.” I smiled to myself at the memory of a ten year old me as Rob was dropped off at the airport and he sent me a goofy selfie and I told my dad that’s what I wanted to do with my own life. I wanted to become a voice actress and be just as childish as he could be.    


“So you’re a theater person right? What is your favorite show?” She asked me and I knew that answer off the top of my head since it had been my favorite since I was a little girl.    


“If we’re talking for kids then my favorite is arguably Singin’ In The Rain everyone should see it because not only is it funny but it has this underlying heart that I just love and I was Cosmo one year for Halloween that was super embarrassing now that I think about it. I probably looked nothing like him but I still had a great time tapping around in his shoes. Donald O'Connor is a massively forgotten legend in my eyes and he was the best tap dancer ever to exist please don’t put this into the magazine because it will wind up with me babbling and that’s probably already happened I’m really sorry sometimes I get really excited about my favorite topic.” I apologized and the woman just smiled at me but continued to write things down on her piece of paper.    


“Josh, are you excited to work with this amazing young lady?” He nodded his head enthusiastically at the question and put a supportive arm around my shoulders.    


“Of course!! She’s one of the most amazing young ladies that I have ever had the great pleasure of meeting. The imagination on this one alone is going to be fun to work with she doesn’t do anything half done, it’s either done to her fullest potential or she’s bored with it. It was one of the first things that I noticed and admired about her sense of style that worked off of her personality. She is Liz, there’s no denying that. She didn’t just make her character and personality she put a ton of herself into her and you can see the amount of heart that is given to make her seem more realistic. I can’t wait to work on this incredible show with an equally talented young artist. I found it really challenge at first since I’m so used to things like Big Bang Theory where they film you which they still do here so they can catch your facial expression. It makes it easier to animate that apparently don’t ask me I’m not the best artist but segway if you can go inside and snap pictures there I would recommend the third floor where she made this replica of Donatello and Lizzy in about fifteen minutes solid made from chalk.” He explained to them and she wrote down everything that he was saying shaking my hand.    


“You’ve been great, we’re going to actually stay here because we want to get some shots of you working in the booth and probably that chalk art.” I nodded my head knowing that this next step would be much harder for me but if Josh was the one feeding me questions from off screen I could definitely do it.    


“Alright sunshine, you’re doing great so far just one more thing to do and then it’s inside and you can start recording lines which I know is what you’re looking forward to. This won’t take long at all probably the entire thing will be around five minutes long so you shouldn’t be that worried about it.” Rob told me and I nodded my head standing up from the stool where I had been sitting and dusting off my skirt. I saw both Ant and Andy come out of the studio and they both smiled at me and waved.    


“Good afternoon Abby, you ready for some questions? We’ve actually got the questions on cards now so Josh you kind of came early for no reason sorry about that. You can be the moral support or you can go inside and get ready for line reading. You’ll do great Abby, we already know the answer to most of these since we’ve been around you a good percentage of the time that you’ve been cast.” I laughed at Andy and I took a seat at the big orange couch that they had moved over to the outside.    


“ Alright we’re rolling in three...two...one…” The cameraman gave me my cue and I plastered my best excited smile.    


“Hi I’m Abigail Stark and I’m the newest cast member on Rise Of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.” I introduced myself reading off the cards that had been written for me but also letting it feel natural. The first question looked simple enough, what was my first cartoon.    


“My very first cartoon that I remember was from when I was five and it was absorbent and yellow and porous is he Spongebob Squarepants.” I laughed to myself at my joke that was a reference to the classic opening theme song. The card flipped to the next question what was my favorite cartoon ever made.    


“My favorite cartoon ever made is definitely the original Teen Titans, it still is to this day the show that changed my life the most. The animation, the story and plot lines that always made me laugh or feel emotional due to the weight of the adversaries and those classic iconic characters that mean more to me than anything else on television my favorite is Beast Boy.” I answered hoping that was short but to the point since that was easily the hardest question for me to not babble on. The most exciting thing about voice acting was easy too.    
“I am most excited to work with my co stars and am so grateful that they gave me the time of day since I am a complete newcomer to this world. I never would have guessed that the dream I had when I was ten would have come true for as long as I live. But, I’m here and I’m going to love every minute of it.” I smiled to myself as the card flipped to funniest Donatello moment in the newer show.    


“Oh geez this is a hard one for me since Donnie is not only favorite turtle but this show alone is hilarious am I allowed to have two?” I asked the cameraman as he nodded his head and Josh watched on bated breath as he wanted to hear this too as his voice actor.    


“ So my first one is probably one of the most iconic at least for a show that’s only halfway through its first season but it’s something that I’ll always love about this incarnation in particular. That’s the fact that Donnie’s password is Bootyshaker9000 since he has an obsession with dancing. The other one is a cheap shot but I’m going with it anyways it’s whenever he’s sarcastic his greeting to Mrs. Cuddles, his banter with his other brothers and just the fact that this is a totally different interpretation than what I’m used to seeing. There have been so many moments where I’ve laughed out loud at these characters since there was always humor but it was never truly this funny since that wasn’t their focus it was on the action scenes and not how can we make this absolutely hysterical.” I gave my answer with a small smile as the card flipped again and I saw that it was asking me about my personal story for animation.    


“So the reason why I’m here today is because when I was ten my best friend and now boyfriend Jeremy Altega partnered with my dad Tony Stark to make me have the best possible tenth birthday buying me both tickets to the Nickelodeon Hotel that used to be up in Orlando and tickets to Disney World right after that. Jeremy’s end of the bargain was the “entertainment” and he of course thinks alright what if I were to ask all of my voice actors to come out so I could meet them in person. There was so many people that I idolized when I was growing up in this industry names of which you’ve probably never heard of so I’ll just keep this short. One of the people that showed up was in my personal opinion a legend and the one and only master of his craft since he’s been doing it for so long and he has so many characters in his arsonol that I just adore and he goes by the name of Rob Paulsen. Without him I would probably be face down in a ditch right now because he did probably one of the most amazing things for me. He taught me how to have fun and to enjoy my life beyond studying for classes since before him I was just this bookworm and at ten I was in the eighth grade while most people were just finishing fifth grade. I learned so much from just being around him about how my life should be lived. Instead of just studying all the time I started to do things for the pleasure of doing so and one of them that I found that I was fairly good at was acting on the stage. I had always loved musical theater for as long as I can remember and people always told me that I had the perfect voice for it but never actually tried it until I was ten and saw that there was a production of Beauty And The Beast. I was tall for my age and thought to myself that I could easily pull off the role of the leading lady for such a young age and while there was a bit of an uproar they only cast the Beast a few years older than me so I think people chilled out then. That was the first time I had ever truly been on a stage before and I loved it more than anything else in the entire world. It was something that was so life changing and I wouldn’t be here without the support that Rob had given to me as a little girl. When he turned out to be the voice director on Rise he told me that my character that I had designed what felt like a thousand years ago had been given to the assistant director and that he was interested in hiring me as her voice actress I leapt at the opportunity to make this my voice over debut.” I gave my backstory on acting and Rob just looked like he was about to break down emotionally and I smiled at my old friend about in the same boat. The next question was one that I knew like the back of my hand, where did I get the inspiration for Liz.    


“So I was ten when Teenage Mutant Turtles 2012 came out and this was the first time that I was truly in love with the show. My dad showed me the 2003 incarnation and I liked it fine and loved Donnie but I didn’t truly love all the characters until the version that I truly grew up with came out. I had always had this passion for making good art and when I first came up with the idea she was human not another turtle. That was the version that Rob saw was this human character with frizzy hair, noise canceling headphones and a shy nature. It was after I went to Hawaii for the first time at twelve that I knew she would have to be a sea turtle since they are my favorite animal. I went home and drew her in that way giving it to Rob the next time that I saw him when we went out for ice cream. I was so deeply inspired to make characters who were on the spectrum like myself because not only are they easier for me to relate to but they also are in the minority. I wanted to create the first tried and true aspie for the Ninja Turtle franchise.” I explained giving a bit more of my backstory about how I had related to my own original character. The next question was dream place to work and I knew this one would probably raise more questions than answers.    


“If I were to probably choose my dream place to work it would probably be at Funimation in Texas since they run the anime community. I’ve been a full fledged Otaku since I was in high school loving a lot of shows from the western corner of the world. I consider so many of it’s actors and characters in the highest regard, especially if we’re talking FullMetal Alchemist and Edward Elric. I’m just a massive nerd that’s pretty much the gist of it. I’ve gone to a couple of cons in my days and met some of the most amazing people through them that have given me the best advice for not only confidence but also showed me to never give up on my dreams. I think that my three favorites are Michael Tatum, Ian Sinclair and Micah Solusod though they change and flip flop a lot too.” I told them and I saw Rob give me the thumbs up for doing such a great job at being comfortable with these guys. The next question card flipped and I could see that it was the final one asking me what I was most excited about working here.    


“It’s definitely the community, I’ve wanted to work in this community for a really long time. To be able to actually walk up to Jhonen Vasquez’s office upstairs and to walk around the various floors is like my dream come true. I can’t wait until you all are able to see me in the show and this is one of the highlights of my life thus far.” I told them and they made the cut sign as I stood up dusting off my shorts when Rob made some sort of signal and the next thing I knew a bucket of slime ended up in my head getting in my hair and I let out this high pitched scream of sheer indignation.    


“I HATE YOU SO MUCH SOMETIMES ROB!!” I glared daggers at my old friend trying to pull something like that on me and he just cackle with laughter.   


“Oh come on sunshine it’s all in good fun, at least you weren’t wearing this.” He gestured to my GIR sweatshirt and I glared at him when Belle came over to see what all the ruckus was and she just licked the slime off of my legs.    


“Don’t worry it’s actually a bunch of water just dyed green to look like slime.” I rolled my eyes at him as Josh finally dried his tears of laughter and I glared at him.    


“This is so not funny, just be glad that Doug and Tom weren’t here otherwise they would never let me live that down. I am so glad that you all find this funny because it so isn’t and I hate being wet you know this. I loved this shirt too, if you had planned something like this than a little warning would have been nice. You know what happens now right? I get to exact my revenge so your best be ready Rob Paulsen because I will get you back for this.” I threatened and he just dried his tears of laughter since he hadn’t stopped laughing at me this entire time as I probably looked like a drowned rat.    


“It’s just water Abby come on we were prepared for this and have new clothes for you.” Ant told me and I followed him to see that there were actually other clothes that fit my usual style. I picked out the one that had Donnie on it from the newer show with Lizzy since it was obviously still in development but it looked amazing. Donnie was launching his rocket bo staff and Liz was on the end jumping off of it and into the air with guns shooting voltages of electricity everywhere. I picked that out and a black skirt that would reach to my knees and went to go and change out of my gross wet clothes will Rob played fetch with Belle outside. I felt better about the whole thing now that I wasn’t soaked through to the bone but that didn’t mean that he was going to get off easily. I would figure out some way to enact my revenge upon my voice acting coach yet. I went back outside seeing Kevin talking with everybody and was instantly worried that the people up in the Invader Zim section could hear my screaming. 

“That was quite the scream that you gave off there Abby, Jhonen was worried about you he instantly ran to his window and started doubling over laughing. Who was the wise guy that thought of that?” I jerked a thumb at Rob who whistled to himself trying to look inconspicuous towards the common eye.    


“It was Rob he dumped a bucket of green colored water all over my favorite shirt and now I need to let my new shoes dry out too.” I grumbled to myself looking through the shoes and picking out the sandals since they seemed to be the best fit. Kevin just laughed at all of us interacting and sat down next to me as I put on my new shoes.    


“I’m sorry that happened to you, you weren’t wearing the hoodie were you?” I shook my head putting the sweatshirt back on over my shoulders feeling a little bit better with it’s proximity being closer now.    


“You watch anime too right? I’ve seen some tweets about it in your feed. You’ve got good taste in shows.” He was probably talking about when I had made the voting schedules for Erased, FullMetal my favorite show and Fruits Basket to see which zodiac animal was the cutest.    


“I still stand by the fact that Momiji is the cutest thing known to anime. He’s my baby boy and I love him more than anything. It’s not just because I’m a year of the rabbit too but he just meant a lot to me growing up.” I zipped up the back of the sandals feeling a little bit better now that I wasn’t feeling the slosh of water in my Beast Boy sneakers.    


“I told you not to wear anything that you were too attached to but to still look nice. That’s what you get for not listening to me. By the way that’s going to be in the bloopers at the end of the video.” I glared daggers at my voice coach just turning around so I couldn’t even look at him.    


“I honestly can’t believe that your pranking would go this far. Seriously, I was already nervous about this and then you had to go and make everything worse.” I stood up dusting off my skirt from sitting and then huffing a breath before walking away back inside ignoring the calls of my friends. Maybe I was being bitter about this for the sake of just being bitter but I didn’t really care. I was really actually pissed off at Rob for pulling a prank on me during an interview and then deciding that it would be a good idea to film it and put it at the end of the video. Even hearing that Jhonen had heard my scream all the way up in the building made me feel humiliated for even bothering to audition. I wished that I could be a different person one without these feelings that I can’t do anything right and that I have so much anxiety that I couldn’t even humanly function. I took out my backpack that I had brought with me so that I could draw and maybe that would help me feel a bit better. I had brought this with me incase I had an anxiety attack which is what was currently coming over me and I just started to draw characters that made me feel better about myself. I started with a Momiji because he was the first to come to my mind. I considered him to be one of the best characters in both the anime and the manga with his adorably childlike nature, his backstory that’s both harsh and at the same time heartwarming for him wanting to keep his memories even if they wind up hurting him at the end of the day with how his mom doesn’t even remember that he’s her son. I drew him in human form first with his blonde hair and big brown eyes that translated into rabbit form as well. I hadn’t even heard Rob and Josh come through the front doors looking for me as I had my over the ear headphones on.    


“Look I’m really sorry that I tried to prank you, I thought that if I did you would maybe lighten up a little bit about this job. I forgot who I was dealing with and didn’t take into account how you would react to that situation. It’s my fault and I’m sorry. If you want to yell or hit me just get it over with.” I looked at my best friend with my head cocked to the side a little bit confused.    


“I’m not mad at you Rob. I’m a little bit embarrassed and really humiliated and I’m sorry if you thought that I was angry with you. I should have expected something like a bucket of slime dumped on my head and don’t know why I was expecting for nothing to happen. I guess I kind of deserved that too I was really nervous when I shouldn’t have been. I just hope that I don’t suddenly become the laughing stock of the internet thanks to your shenanigans.” I told him and he just hugged me tightly and Josh looked at me.   


“Are you sure that you’re okay Abby? You kind of just stomped out of there. Oh these are amazing!! I love them they’re really good did you paint them?” I nodded my head as I slipped them off my ears to around my neck showing him my Invader Zim themed noise canceling headphones that I painted to make it look like my favorite characters. I had Zim and Gir on one of them and then Purple and Gaz on the other.    


“They’re my four favorite characters in the entire show even if they’re all assholes and mean spirited they will always mean the world to me. Especially Zim and Gir they are above the other two even if I love all of them so much.” I showed him my headphones that I painted when I had first gotten interested in the cartoon and he looked at them in awe.    


“I am still amazed at what a good artist you are. You could be upstairs animating instead you’re down with us lowly actors.” I laughed at my friend uncrossing my legs that were on the couch.   


“Well as much as I would love to animate it’s not really me. I mean most of the people in my life think that I can make a career out of this field and I do too. I really want to make a career out of this it’s one of my favorite business in the world. If it means that one day I get to walk the same hallways as Vic once did even if he turned out to be a massive jerk which is still up for debate and arguments I don’t really know who to side with in that regard and sorry you probably have no idea what I’m talking about…” I apologized since just because Rob knew what I was talking about didn’t mean that Josh did.    


“Sunshine over here used to be obsessed with his work…” Rob teased and I would have shot back that I wasn’t obsessed just a great admirer of it. 

“You know what I can try to fight you on that but you’re probably right. He used to be my favorite voice actor over at Funimation a few months ago though he got fired for sexual harassment. It’s still under investigation but I’m doubtful he didn’t do it but then again at the same time he pulls things like this that leave me cocking my head to the side and wondering what really happened here.” I showed him the tweet so that at least he would know somewhat what I was talking about.    


“What were his characters? His name sounds really familiar but I haven’t seen a ton of anime before. I take it you haven’t either?” Josh turned to Rob who shook his head at him.    


“Not particularly that was mainly her obsession she got really into the medium when she was in middle school and high school. She has shown me a couple of shows though. She showed me Ouran which I loved, FullMetal Alchemist my personal favorite and Erased a really good mystery thriller anime that had a really great plot but failed due to its final twist. Abby loved his work though for a long time even to the point where when she got to the con she totally just went off on him about all her favorite characters.” I rolled my eyes because of course he would bring that up one of my most embarrassing babbles even if the actor himself thought that they were adorable.    


“He was a ton of characters but some of the ones that stuck with me the most were Edward Elric the “FullMetal” alchemist who to this day is my favorite character in the medium and even in media history, Tamaki Suoh my favorite host in Ouran High because he reminded me a ton of Jeremy at the time and still is that way to this day, Broly in Dragon Ball, Rin in Free one of my favorite sports anime and thousands of other characters. He’s repetur is relentless to the point where at one time he was considered their most popular actor over there. I loved him for a really long time and like Rob said even met him at a con a few months before this all happened and I freaked out. He took me to it because he noticed that Michael Tatum, Ian Sinclair, Micah Soulsod and Vic were all going to be there and he thought that it would be the perfect Christmas present for me. It was pretty much the best weekend of my life right there and I got to spend time one on one with all of them thanks to the fact that Rob had signed up to have a panel there as well and brought me along as his special guest. He’s hardly ever done that but it was one of the things that I’ll always be thankful for.” I had spent so much money in the dealers room at that con. There was so many amazing merchandise that I treasured to this day including one of my favorite figurines an Alphonse and Edward fighting each other.    


“Now I know who you’re talking about that’s awful. Our world is going through the wringer right now and this is really painful probably for you since you’ve met him and talked with him personally. Is that your goal one day? To be an anime voice actress?” I nodded my head fervently because if I could choose my own path and make my own career that would be it hands down. 

“She loves that part of the industry the actors that lend their voice to so many different characters but they all have the same personality type just gone about in a different way. That’s what made Michael Tatum famous right? He’s known for a specific type of character, the glasses wearing intellectual right?” I nodded my head showing off my favorite piece of art that I had ever made by far. It had every famous character that was ever in his lineup and Josh looked at the piece of paper in awe.    


“That’s amazing!! Did you show it to him?” I nodded my head thinking back to the green room where I had spent a good portion of the afternoon talking with him about how he became such a big name.    


“Yes I did, he loved it and I offered to give it to him but he insisted that I take it and when I got into the industry to not forget him. My personal favorite is Rei from Free probably because he’s the most relatable to me in my own life. He’s the one that I looked at in high school and went that’s me in a group sitting the one that is quiet and keeps to himself but when he opens up to another person he becomes this for lack of a better word beautiful butterfly.” I thought back to how much my friend had taught me about acting and learning to embrace my own personal quirks one of them being that once I started talking a lot. 

“Sunshine can talk to anybody as long as they are involved in the animation industry because it’s something that she’s always embraced. Wasn’t it the Loop De Loop song that taught you how to tie your shoes? It was on one of the earlier episodes of Spongebob.” I nodded my head fervently knowing that was indeed the truth.    


“Pretty much, before it I had a hard time tying them and had to learn it through the bright and optimistic sponge.” Belle came running inside the studio and she stopped at my feet panting as she had a ball in her mouth.    


“I promise I’ll play fetch with you when we get home baby. It’s too dangerous and I don’t want to break anything.” I felt my phone buzz and I looked down seeing two tweets coming my way. One of them was from the official Nickelodeon Twitter account and one of them was a message from Michael Tatum since this was the main way that we communicated back and forth. I looked at the one from Nickelodeon studios first and smiled to myself.    


_ She’s got quite the electrifying personality, making a character that she created when she was a little girl and making her voice acting debut it’s Abigail Stark!! Learn about how she was brought up into the industry and about her secret massive love for anime and her dream of walking the same hallways as her idols down at Funimation in Texas.  _ As I read the congratulatory comments that were coming from all these talking about literal life goals and posting their own fan art of her already one sticking out in my mind.    


“This one is really good isn’t it? It looks just like a chibi version of my character!! That’s so beautiful, oh lord I’m crying.” I struggled to dry the tears that were coming from my eyes and Rob just put his arm around my shoulders.    
“It’s alright sunshine, it’s only natural that something like this would happen to you with everything that’s going on right now. What does Tatum want? Read it aloud for the peanut gallery.” He encouraged and I clicked on the messaging icon so I could tell Rob what my friend over in the anime spectrum of things had sent to me.    


“It says: I’m so fucking proud of you!! Like the levels of pride that I feel for you are unreal right now. And here I thought that I was going to be the person that shoved you into the industry with this news that’s probably going to make your life. We’re dubbing A Place Further Than The Universe and talk is going through the grapevine of maybe finding some new talent for one of these girls. I thought that you would make the perfect Shiraise, you might still have to audition since this is your first anime but Justin was heavily rooting for you. Now that you’ve got your foot in the door though kiddo the world is practically your oyster. I know that what’s been going on with Vic and that whole mania has probably been weighing on you but don’t let that stop you from doing what you truly want to. I think that you would make an incredible VA and would love to do shows with you and travel to cons. We’re also doing Fruits Basket remake down here as well and still haven’t casted a certain Rabbit. I think that will be more up your alley for right now since you’re doing a fucking NATIONAL TELEVISION SHOW!!” I tried to make it as exaggerated as possible as he would probably be doing if he was here in the same room right now. I reread the message before sending one back to him thinking and trying to digest what was happening.    


_ Abbylovescartoons: OMG!!!! I would love that job so much, I still have a long time before the movie is even starting to be voiced because they still have to finish all the episodes for this season they just wanted to do my introduction first since they wanted me to know. I would love to be both roles they mean so much to me especially Momiji even though I fully relate to Shiraise. Any word on ADR for that one yet? The only problem is I don’t know if I have the time to go down there myself right now since I just did Sesame Street and that was a whirlwind of adventure right there. I’ll talk to Pepper later and get back to you. Besides I’ll have to at least rent a place in Texas since I’ve never been there before. Even if money is almost literally no object and I’ll be fine either way. I also have my birthday coming up and I might need to be here for that. I’m so glad that you’re proud of me Michael you’ve helped me out so much in terms of getting a character down to a science and learning to fully understand them. I wouldn’t be where I am without meeting you last December I don’t know if you realize it but I’m a far more confident person thanks to your influence on my life. I am a little bit broken up about Vic because on one hand I want to support you and the people standing up but at the same time he’s arguing a really believable cause. It doesn’t tarnish the image that I had of him or anything like that because I’m willing to separate an actor from their characters and I’ll still always hold Edward Elric up on that pedestal that he’s always been on. Even if we bonded probably far more than me and him he was still so nice to me. It’s just a real mess and I wish that I could understand it.  _   
“You do have a good amount of time before we start voicing the movie. I think that you should at least go out there and see if you can get the bunny character. I know that I’ll watch it if you get cast which I’m sure that you will. Who’s Justin?” Josh asked me moving to look over my shoulder and I smiled to myself unbelieving that my friend was helping me get my foot through the door in terms of the anime industry just like he promised that he would one day if the opportunity came. 

“Justin Cook is the head of Funimation and he’s the leader and head of everything in the company. It makes me wonder how he even knew that I was an actress unless Michael told him to which I will be heavily embarrassed.” I smiled to myself at the thinking that I was close to the voice actor that he would care enough to do this for me. 

“He sounds like he loves you a whole lot like a younger sister. I don’t know why I’m still surprised that you have all these people on your side that care about and love you. Wait he tweeted out a video.” Josh told me and I clicked on it seeing the moment that would become one of my many favorites with the two of us talking and me in my Miyuri cosplay that I had bought specifically for this con as he was talking to me about becoming a character and using Okabe as an example.    


“I wasn’t expecting for you two to get along so well. To be honest I was expecting for you to be glued to Vic’s side instead of his. It was adorable though to see you just connecting with somebody entirely different from you and his promise to you warmed my heart.” I grinned to myself at the thought that I had such an amazing friend who even though we didn’t talk as often as often as I did with the cartoon voice actors he still held a special place specific to him.    


“Well I think that at the time he was the easiest to talk to because while I still loved and respected him Vic was like on another planet to me. Michael I was really nervous to meet but I knew when he took a selfie with me in my cosplay that he would be immensely easy to talk to. Ian and Micah were great though too!! I still talk to them sometimes through twitter as well it’s just that Michael gave me hands down the best advice I’ve probably gotten from anybody other than him.” I jerked a thumb at Rob as I saw all the other voice actors show up and I knew that there was nothing stopping us from going downstairs to perform these characters that were so iconic but in a different light. Belle instantly was at my side happily panting and I smiled at her for being the best dog that I could have ever asked for.    


“Hey there she is!! You did great honey.” Kat encouraged and I smiled at her standing up off the couch knowing that I would get another tweet message from my friend on the other side of the country.    


“You really did Abby, even though Rob over here was trying to make it not as good as it could have been.” Brandon joked and I rolled my eyes at my old friend who was still not even sorry about what he did. He probably deep down still thought that it was funny.    


“I never even knew that you watched anime, when did that happen?” Omar asked me as I adjusted the backpack straps that were over my shoulders that were themed to FullMetal Alchemist Brotherhood.    


“ Well I’ve loved it since I was in middle school. There was a big portion of time where I was alone a lot since those three years were the hardest for me school wise even. I spent a lot of time watching different shows that changed my life for the better my first one being Soul Eater when I was eleven. From there I watched my favorite mecha show meaning giant robots Gurren Lagann with one of the most moving and inspiring messages of really any show at all. Working over at Funimation has pretty much been my goal since I was a really little girl around the age of eleven. There are a lot of people that think I can totally pull it off without a hitch Rob being one of them but this story I love. So last year he decides that he’s going to buy me tickets to a con that is fully focused on anime and cartoons since he had a panel there too and get me full access to the green room somehow. I had decided to buy a cosplay on a whim since one of the voice actors that was going to be there was J Michael Tatum and he played one of my favorite male characters in anime Okabe Rintaru from Steins;Gate sort of your typical mad scientist and he has this companion that I just adore Mayuri or “Miyushi”. Since I kind of looked like her it was easy to dress up like her. He and I wound up talking throughout the majority of the weekend when I wasn’t with Ian or Micha who are two of my favorites who were also there. He promised me that he wanted to get me into the industry somehow and he’s working on making good on that promise right now. He told me that they still haven’t chosen a Momiji Sohma one of my favorite members of the Chinese zodiac in Fruits Basket that’s being remade. I watched the original show like it was pretty much going out of style and they’re bringing back most of the original cast.” I gave my explanation and they all looked at me with such pride that it warmed my heart.    


“That’s great!! You’re achieving your dreams and goals that you set out for yourself no holding back. That’s probably one of the best pieces of advice that I could ever give to another person that you need to embrace yourself and not care what anybody thinks about your career. You have the talent now you just need to get a solid gig over there in Texas and you can make a name for yourself. You’ve got the friend boost that will be immensely helpful to get your foot through the door until you’re talented enough to gather your own fan base.” Ben encouraged and I smiled at my friend for the sheer amount of encouragement that all of them were giving to me.    


“I’m really hoping that he pulls through for me it would be kind of complicated especially if I actually get the role but hopefully I’ll just use the starkplane when I need to go down there since he’s not a major character and I can play Liz most of the time still but if the hours conflict I might have to turn them down and tell Michael maybe some other time. Because in his words, he would tell you that he had a bit of a language problem when not doing cons and speaking with people who are underaged that I’m doing a fucking national television show. I honestly love him like he’s my brother he’s seriously great.” I laughed to myself following my friends down to the voice acting booths in the basement.    


“I’ve never in all my year of knowing sunshine seen her talk with somebody that much after just meeting them. He pretty much went yup you’re my little sister now get used to it. What was the first thing that you two talked about again? Was it Fairy Tail?” I nodded my head enthusiastically at the question remembering sitting on the other side of the couch and just going back and forth with all the voice actors and talking about their various roles.    


“ I love Simon so much, he hardly has a real role in the grand scheme of things but in that small group of Erza’s old friends he’s the only one that really spoke to me personally. He was the only one that ever believed in Erza fully and I really admired his tenacity to pretend that he was following his old friend but in the end to sacrifice himself to save Erza. That show honestly it makes me a huge mess most of the time especially when we get down to character backstories since most of them are brutal to a fault. Hers is by far the worst and probably none of you understand what I’m saying I’m really sorry, Rob you’re making me do it again.” I pouted at my best friend as he just nudged my shoulder with his and a bright smile on his face.    


“You really think that they care about that sunshine? It’s obvious to me that even if they don’t understand really what you’re talking about that they’re listening to what you’re telling them.” He encouraged and I finally started to relax and believe them a little bit.    


“He’s right Abby!! We might not really know all about the things that you watch but it’s just fascinating to hear what you have to say since you’re usually so quiet. I want to hear more about what you two spoke about.” Josh encouraged and everyone in the elevator nodded as we held it open for JJ who was rushing into it with drawings everywhere.    


“Well Michael wound up giving me a ton of tips about gaining confidence since I still am working on that and Rob has tried to help me and it’s worked for the most part but in order to be an actor you have to carry yourself in a certain way. Most of it was just talking about technique for each character since they all spoke to me in different ways. Enero in One Piece was one of the most dastardly villains-” JJ looked at me in surprise as I started to talk about my good friend down in the anime realm of voice acting and the one that I bounded with the most. 

“Did you say that you’ve met Michael Tatum?! I’m a huge One Piece fan!! Enero is my favorite villain in that entire show he’s such a bastard.” I laughed at my new friend nodding my head showing him the Twitter message that the man in question had sent me earlier.    


“He’s a friend of mine, I met him at a con in December it was a Christmas present from Rob. I got to meet Ian Sinclair whom I love since he’s the one and only Space Dandy and I love that show more than any other comedy anime out there, Micah Soulsod one of the nicest people that I’ve ever met and he gave me insight into how he can change his voice to fit any character that he’s given something that still to this day just blows my mind, Vic who used to be my favorite because like how can you not when he’s played some of the most famous characters in all of anime? But, in lue of recent events and the fact that I’ve made good friends somebody whose voice I can still recognize off the top of my head. Michael is amazing he is one of the nicest people that I’ve ever met and he really helped me get to where I am even though I’ve only known him about a month now.” I checked through my tweets seeing one from the man himself that was a video that I clicked on and it us talking back and forth about one of my favorite characters Okabe Rintaru from Steins;Gate and his favorite too. I remembered this moment perfectly and he meant so much more to me than just any other voice actor.    


“I was the one that filmed that!! He asked me to videotape some of it because he wanted to see it eventually. He was a really great guy in all honesty we had a great time that weekend just following all those voice actors around right sunshine?” I nodded my head enthusiastically that had truly been one of the best weekends of my entire life right there and we had such a great time just being around each other. The bell dinged as we reached the voice acting booth floor and I followed Josh into our combined booth slipping the over the ear headphones on my head and settling in for the session. I had to do the monologue again and I realized that there had been some adjustments to it but I could handle it. I got through my one long piece of dialogue that was all just me talking and hoped that I was doing a decent job. I powered off my phone so that nobody could bother me while we were recording and held onto Belle’s leash so that I could ground myself even though I was nervous now. I had come so far already mostly off of sheer luck alone now I had to prove that I was worthy of being called “lucky”. All the voice actor friends in my life had been the ones to push me forwards and I hadn’t hardly gotten any roles on my own. True, I had to audition but that didn’t mean that this character would ever really catch on. 

“You’re here because you’re talented whether you see it or not Abby you’ve come so far even if people have helped you along the way. You’re here because you’ve got more talent in your five foot zero body than most can have in their own lives.” Josh praised and I smiled at my friend for knowing what I was thinking and getting back into my character settling in for hours of laughter and once the session was over we had only made it through the first half of the script.    


_ “ _ _ Great work ladies and gentlemen!! We’ll call that a wrap for the days work and we’ll come back next week if that works with everyone’s schedule?”  _ I nodded my head hoping that if this audition did workout that I could come back soon too.    


“ Yeah that should work with me but I’ll keep you up to date anyways just in case this audition at Funimation goes swimmingly like Michael keeps encouraging me. I swear I’ll wind up owing him more than I already do by the end of the week.” I pushed the hair out of my face as I turned back on my phone seeing that Elliot had called me three times during the five hour recording session. I checked my voicemail hoping that it wasn’t urgent and I could still help him whatever it was and heard the sounds of obviously grief stricken boyfriend coming through the phone.    


_ “Baby? I know you’re probably really busy. To be honest I don’t even know why I’m bothering you right now with this stupid ass shit but you said that Jeremy’s home was just as bad as mine. My dad kicked me out of the house. I told him that I had started to date two people again and he just lost his shit with me and there’s blood on my face since he threw a fucking shot glass at me. He threw it right underneath my eye so I’m hoping that I don’t need stitches there. My mom is siding with him she thinks that it would be better if I just left that she wouldn’t even care if I left or not. Can I have permission to go to the mansion and maybe meet you there?”  _ I listened to his grief stricken voice and kicked the airspace next to my body that wasn’t on Belle’s side.    


“I can’t believe that somebody would be so petty to throw out their own child for something like this. I’m really sorry but I have to go I’ll see you guys next time.” I told my friends as I ran for the elevator taking Belle with me as she barked at me in indignation. I got her into the passenger side of my car and called my boyfriend back cursing when he didn’t answer his phone before driving to his house and not even caring just opening the door. The air reeked of booze and overconsumption of alcohol.    


“Are you that little whore’s bitch? Honestly you’re more plain looking than I was expecting you to be.” I knew that I had to stand my ground and stand up to this asshole for hurting the boy that I had so quickly fallen for.    


“I’m not her ‘bitch’ I’m his girlfriend. I’m here to pick him up since he is obviously not safe here with you or your wife if you are so willing to throw him out for such a petty reason. Tell me, before he was born didn’t you promise to love him no matter what happened? It seems like every parent does that but most of them who turn out to not what they expect their child to be they windup being massive homophobic and transphobic assholes like you.” I asked the man in front of me pushing up my glasses and letting the plain comment wash over my shoulders. 

“Of course I did!! But what I didn’t ask for him to become was that  _ thing!!  _ I blame it on the fact that I shouldn’t have let him watch that Danny whatever it was cartoon when she was growing up because ever since then it’s been a downward spiral.” I tried my hardest to hold back my sheer raw urge to just punch this guy in the face and instead flattened the back of my skirt as a nervous habit that I really needed to break. I wouldn’t show this man weakness not if I could help it and I looked him dead in the eyes.    


“First of all, that “thing” is an actual living breathing human being with feelings and emotions just like everybody else on this earth. He loves and feels just about everything that you do. Second of all, it’s Danny  _ Phantom  _ and it’s his favorite show of all time. There is nothing wrong with it in fact it’s a great cartoon one of the best that we had the opportunity to grow up with. Thirdly and lastly, it wasn’t a downward spiral if he wound up finding his true self and embracing the fact that he was different. We all have different ways of coping with being different and go about in separate ways that are individual to each person. He is your  _ son  _ and deserved to be love just like every child out there. He didn’t do anything wrong in this scenario in fact if you’re asking me you’re in the wrong here because you never took the time to understand that deep down Elliot is a loving and caring individual who needs the same love thrown back at him.” I lectured using my Michael’s advice and standing up for the people that I loved in my life looking a homophobe dead in the eyes and telling them exactly where they went wrong.

“What the fuck do you know?! Who even are you ?! Some nobody who isn’t going to be around long enough just like the last two were. Gave her some bullshit story about not being interested in her and in each other.” I gasped and stood my ground just wanting to go and cuddle my boyfriend and watch some Invader Zim back at my mansion.    


“I am Abigail Stark, your  **_son’s_ ** girlfriend who is taking him out of this house and instead to somewhere where he will be loved and cherished. Now which way is his bedroom?” I asked my boyfriend’s idiotic father and he just pointed to the general direction of his son’s bedroom as I opened the door instantly smelling weed.    


“Abby?!” Elliot instantly put out the joint and I could tell that this was only something that he did when things got totally twisted. His room was just like how I had expected it to look with all these different band posters and a whole small shrine to Brendon Urie. 

“I’m really sorry that I’m late honey, you called me during my recording sessions otherwise I would’ve been here in a heartbeat you know that. I’m taking you home with me come on did you pack your things?” I asked him and he nodded his head slinging his over the shoulder bag onto his back and I got a good look at his eye. It looked really bad but I just hugged him tightly knowing that was probably what he needed right now.    


“You’re going to be okay Elliot, I promise I will protect you with everything that I have in me. You’ll never have to hurt again with me around and you’ll learn to love yourself just as you are.” I encouraged kissing his cheek gently and squeezing his hand as he led us out of the house and out to my car.    


“I’m sorry that I had to bother you. You were probably having a great time with your voice acting friends and I had to go and ruin it with my stupid problems.” Elliot sat next to me in passenger side of the car with Belle in the middle and licking his hand.    


“You didn’t do anything wrong Elliot I would do absolutely anything and everything for you. I want for you to know that you’ll do amazing things one day and move past this mess. Tell me, have you ever watched FullMetal Alchemist Brotherhood?” I asked my boyfriend who just shook his head at me and I could see the small smile on his face that I had changed the subject.    


“No I haven’t, I’ve not watched many anime before even if I do consider myself a fan of the medium. I love things like Ouran High and Fruits Basket because they make me laugh and that means a lot to me in my home life especially since Haruhi is literally goals.” I pulled the car out of the driveway and Belle only snuggled into Elliot’s side knowing that’s what he needed right now.    


“Well the main character has helped me through a lot of shit in the past and I think he might do the same thing for you. Edward to me means standing up and using your legs to move forward past the times when you’ve felt weakest. He’s the character that most took me by the hand and helped me get over my issues no matter what. Even if Vic has been fired for sexual harassment he’ll always be a part of my life meeting him was incredible even if I was too socially awkward to spend a lot of time talking with him one on one. Most of the time I spent talking with Michael, Ian and Micah individually they’re all incredible friends and great people.” Elliot reached for my phone and saw that I had another message from Michael. 

“You’ve met all these awesome people in your life that support you I’m almost jealous of it all. All these people that love and support you I mean you have a Twitter message from Michael Tatum for crying out loud!!” I laughed at Elliot smiling at the fact that he was definitely looking a lot better now that I was here. I never wanted to see him cry like I did when I entered his room ever again.    


“Can you please read it to me? I’ll reply to him once we get to the house.” I asked him kindly and he nodded his head at the question.    


“It says: You can still love Edward and I think that you always will because it’s the characters that mean something to the audience. He can say whatever he wants but this is going to be the end of his career. I wanted to talk to you about this earlier but I wasn’t sure how to breach the topic. On that happy note, Justin wants you down here in a couple of days, possibly Saturday since we’re doing Momiji’s first episode soon. I know that this isn’t really the best time but on the bright side of things he’s not in a whole lot of episodes really so you’re in the clear in terms of that mess. I heard that Bevins is going to be in charge of directing for that one so just giving the fair warning at least for me he does this, he’s intense so be prepared for that. I know that you’re a fan of his work since Sero is your favorite side hero so at the very least he’ll like you because of that. I didn’t really do a whole lot for you just gave you some advice to help you hone your skills as an actress. You got here mostly all on your own. True you had friends like Rob that recommended you but you still had to audition and that took massive balls to get through that process. That’s why I’m proud of you because you’ve learned that just because you have Aspergers and your mental disorder causes you to panic at the worst of moments you still were able to do the video and to get the role of being a new ninja turtle. I think that you’re amazing Abby and I’m allowed to be proud of one of my favorite people in my life.” I smiled through the tears in my eyes even though I was so emotional right now.    


“That’s how we communicate back and forth as often as we can. He’s a great friend and truly means a lot to me while helping me forward with advice and jokes all the way. He’s one of the funniest people that I’ve ever met in my entire life just how he got into the industry is a comedic story.” I laughed at the memory of the two of us sitting on the couch and him animatedly telling me the story even though I already knew it I just wanted to hear it from him.    


“How did he get into the industry? He’s one of my favorite voice actors as the cool and cunning intellectual type that I really admire.” I smiled at my boyfriend as we stopped at a red light 

“So he started off in his early twenties working in marketing but he had a friend over at Funimation who was working for the Dragon Ball Z crowd the one and only Christopher Bevins. Bevins calls Michael up one day and tells him I’m working on this show and I want you to come try out for me because none of the usual suspects are working out. Michael gives him the thank you but no thank you since he hadn’t been acting for years and never voice acting. So the next day he gets another call from Bevins yet again saying the exact same story but worded a bit differently pretending that the conversation the day before never even happened. This goes on for about two weeks time where everyday Michael gets a call from him telling him to come and try out for his show. Eventually what starts out as hey I’m working on this show I would love for you to come out and do it with me turns into if you don’t do this for me I’ll break your goddamn kneecaps. If I have to drive you down here throw you into the booth and hold you at gunpoint you’re going to audition. He says to him look I’ll just be frank with you you’re not going to get it. In fact it’s better if you don’t because then I can tell my line producer that see all the new people suck I have to use the old ones. So come down here you’ll blow, we’ll laugh and I’ll never bother you again help me out. Michael goes down there and it turns out to be a four hour long audition. Now us actors usually have maybe two minutes before out comes the shepherd hook and you’ll never hear from those people ever again. It was a four hour long audition and Bevins was this massive beast in the director's chair apparently demanding that Michael put forth more emotion into his character. He compares him to Stanley Kubrick and I thought it was just the funniest thing ever. Once the four hour is over he signs what he thinks is NDA’s they’re basically disclosure agreements that he has to sign since he’s working with things that haven’t been released. But, he signs them without really knowing that he’s actually signing a contract for the same show and then Bevins just tells him that the reason he was in the booth for so long was because they had just recorded the first six episodes of that show.” As I was retelling the story to my boyfriend he just started laughing hysterically. 

“No way, that’s absolutely amazing how that all worked out for him. It’s funny I can’t imagine him anything but a voice actor so hearing that he was in marketing is rather inconceivable to be honest. I would have loved to just sit down and have a conversation with him you’re so lucky baby.” Just knowing that Elliot could still laugh at something as funny as this made me feel a lot better because I wouldn’t have if I were in his shoes.    


“Yeah I’ve pretty much wanted to meet Bevins ever since December when I heard that story just so I could tell him you know thank you for dragging him into this mess. Plus he was in Hetalia and that show means the world to me, he played Japan one of my favorite countries. My favorites are Italy and France though no shockers there mostly because I relate high-key to Italy’s problems with being a space cadet and his love for pasta.” Elliot just blinked at me for a moment as if digesting this information.    


“That’s awesome!! Hetalia was my first anime that I ever saw and Japan was my favorite country with his adorable Engrish accent. I can totally see why you would prefer Italy and France though, they’re the two most quotable countries in the entire show. I would ask him how he got that voice and what it was like to be in the booth recording those episodes even though they are so short.” I had actually asked him this question before when I was hanging out with him at the con and had seen a gender bent version of France walking around and flirting with everyone.    


“He has friends that are actually French so the accent came rather easily to him. So what they had to do in terms of recording was they would do ten episodes per session just because they were all so short.” Elliot listened to every last word that I was saying and that just made me want to be more entertaining for him.    


“I love that you know these things it’s truly a fascinating thing to talk about. You also got to meet Ian and Micah at the same con right? What were they like?” I smiled to myself as clicked on the photos that were all from the con.

“Ian is totally one of the funniest people that I have ever met in my entire life. With him it’s just this constant energy since he is really ADD and he bounces around from topic to topic without really thinking about what he’s saying actually. He is basically the real life version of Space Dandy I had to hear him say booty baby so many times that he told me he wished that he had a button for it. Micah was by far the most relaxed out of all of them he was the easiest for me to talk to aside from bugging the hell out of Michael. He would try to talk to me in the different character voices that he had in his arsenal and have me guess which one it was. I’m usually pretty good at spotting voice actors as specific characters but with Micah maybe it’s because his voice changes at the drop of a hat but we were just having fun goofing around trying to make on another laugh. I got this adorable Space Dandy penguin from one of the more popular episodes where he was with Adelie the little girl and Ian had a field day taking selfies with me and the stuffed animal as you’ll see when you keep flipping through those pictures.” I gave a brief description of what it was like being in the same general vicinity of all these various voice actors that I had looked up to. 

“What about Vic? I can tell that even if you’re not talking about how he got fired it’s still hurting you somewhere.” I sighed knowing that this conversation would happen and now knowing that he was guilty at least in the eyes of my friend hurt a lot.    


“ I spent my entire middle school days holding him on this pedestal that was built for him and his characters alone. I had loved him when I was growing up because to me he was this nice guy who played so many of my favorite characters back in those days. Meeting him was something straight out of a dream since I loved watching all his panels over and over again much to my dad’s teasing me that I was a thirteen year old with an actor crush. He wasn’t wrong so I never really fought him on it. When I first found out that Rob was taking me to the con in December and he told me that he had spare passes for the green room for me I freaked out. This was my chance you know? To meet my idols and talk to them maybe make good friends with one of them and have them help push me to get into the industry. I thought that it was going to be Vic and maybe I was just naive to think that now. I could hardly talk to him outside of the group there was just something off you know? At first I thought that it was me just being socially awkward but now that I know what’s been going on behind the scenes everything makes sense to me. I did enjoy talking with him but for the strangest reason Michael and I bonded way more. I guess I could see his kindness and goofy nature that was more important than just a name. That’s all Vic really was a name and a brand that matched with the character that he played. The yelling type usually with an emotional backstory who cared way too much about his friends and family. With him I knew he would never see me as anything but a fan of his work like hundreds of other people. I could be myself with Michael and he saw me for the real me. I couldn’t be that person with Vic and I guess a part of me doesn’t regret that now that I realize what type of person he is.” I talked about my relationship with the man who used to be on that pedestal only to be instantly knocked off the minute that I heard the news. My dad told me sometimes we have these expectations of people that impossible for them to live up to and that was one of the times when I looked at him and saw that he wasn’t the man I had built him up to be. Just another person that wouldn’t really remember me or contact me ever again.    
“I’m sorry that happened but on the flipside of things you made great friends with Michael, Ian and Micah so everything worked out in the end of things. I’m sure that they’re proud of you right now too and they’ll tell you so the next time they see you down in Texas.” I nodded my head in affirmation before turning down the road that led to my mansion seeing Pepper’s car in the driveway as she was probably waiting for me.    


“I’m sure that they’re proud of me too Michael said that they were as they’re all at a con together right now and will be back tomorrow. Pretty soon that might be me doing the con work and I can’t wait for that as long as I’m with a friend there. Usually I’ll just ask either you or Jeremy just so that I know you’re in the audience and I can pull it off.” Elliot just kissed me gently and I felt his embrace that was so warm and loving consistently.    


“Are you sure that you’re okay? I don’t really know what’s going inside your head right now but if you need to talk to me my room is only across the hallway usually. Sometimes I’ll fall asleep on the couch in utter exhaustion when I’ve been working too hard.” I tried to joke and he just sighed deeply squeezing my hand for support so that he could get his feelings out in the open.    


“I’m actually not that upset I mean yeah I’ve been thrown out of my own comfortable room but at the same time I won’t have to deal with my dad anymore and that makes me feel even better. I get to live in the same mansion as the girl that I’m dating and that makes my life all the happier. I know that you’ll make me feel at home and I’m sorry that you had to see me like that when you walked in that wasn’t my intention but I didn’t hear your car. I only smoke when I need to really mellow the fuck out and things are totally twisted up inside.” I looked at the broken shell of a man in front of me and only hugged him tightly to try and make everything better for him.    


“It’s okay if you’re not alright all the time Elliot. I love you no matter what happens in your life whatever shitty thing that you feel bad about just talk to me okay? I would tell this to myself as well so I hereby declare that no matter what happens in my own life that I feel bad about I will talk to you.” I joked and Elliot hugged me tightly lifting me off my feet and into the air. I laughed when he spun me around and carefully put me back down only to kiss me again.    


“ You’ve got yourself a deal there baby, come on let’s get inside. I’m starving and we’re having pizza for dinner. I guess I’ll have to learn to eat like a rabbit?” He teased and I rolled my eyes at my boyfriend following him into the house hearing Jarvis welcome me back.    


_ “Welcome back Miss Stark, I trust that this is master Elliot? I am Jarvis Mr. Stark created me to be his helpful AI. Miss Pepper is also inside as well and wants to talk to you about the construction of your homeless project.”  _ I nodded my head as Elliot stared at the ceiling in awe as he carried his bag and luggage into the house. I led Belle carefully through the mansion to her food and water bowl that I carefully filled up.    


“That’s the fucking coolest thing that I think I’ve ever seen!! I can’t get over how badass your father must be to make the first artificial intelligence.” I smiled Elliot seeing Pepper sitting at the kitchen counter nursing a cup of tea.    


“Hi Pep!! How was your day today?” I greeted my old friend sliding into the stool next to hers as Elliot did the same but on my other side.

“It was partway decent not as exciting as yours I assure you of that my little voice actress. Here I figured you would want to look at these plans again before construction starts on Starktopia.” I laughed at my dad’s assistant looking at the 3D model of all the rooms and the transportation from building to building.    


“That looks killer, it looks like you and the twins compromised and decided on gandala’s?” Elliot looked at the items and I nodded my head since my slide idea was charming and all but they thought that this would be more fun.    


“Yeah they vetoed my slides idea but this is still pretty bitching. This looks perfect Pepper. I just wanted to say thank you for never giving up on me and always believing that I could do something. Sometimes when I was really struggling with an idea or just couldn’t get something done you were there to help push me forwards.” I praised and she just hugged me tightly as I hugged her right back but I hadn’t even known that she was crying.    


“I’m sorry, I’m really sorry it’s just… you’re so much like your father sometimes that it’s disarming to look at you like this when you’re plotting to change the world. That’s what your father tries to do and I think that if he had his way he would be doing things to help other people. He’d be so proud of you Abigail he already is I hope that you know this that no matter what your father will love you and treasure your bright mind.” Pepper told me honestly brushing a stray hair behind her ear and Elliot just smiled at me leaning his head on my shoulder.    


“I try to act as much like the good side of him that I can. He means so much to me I mean he basically raised me all on his own as a single parent while also being the head of a major corporation to the best of his abilities. He would sit and listen to me about my day while he could have been doing so many other things that would have probably benefited his company more. He promised me that he would make me the happiest girl imaginable for one that had her parents give her up when she was a baby. But, I never really saw it like that. I saw that it was fated that I would end up here in this mansion with Tony Stark as my father. For all the heartbreak that he has brought me he’s still my dad and I could never stop loving him nor do I don’t want anyone better. This family that he’s given to me is one that means the world to me and we’re such goofballs. I like to think that he would be proud of me if he could see me right now. Even though I’ll probably become head of Stark Industries I’m doing something that make me happy.” Elliot kissed my forehead and squeezed the hand that was on his lap for comfort.    


“I don’t know of many people that would just be accepting of their boyfriend to come and live with their daughter after being thrown out of their house but I feel like your father would be one of them. He loves you so much, I’ve watched interviews with both him and you together answering questions as a duo and he almost always knew how much was too much pressure on you. I thought that was the most amazing thing that you could love someone so much and know them that well.” Elliot mentioned and I smiled at my boyfriend supportively as Pepper just turned to face us.    


“Even if by some odd reason he doesn’t allow it you can stay with me Elliot. I’ve grown to admire your tenacity and your strength to stand your ground. My doors will always be welcomed to you should you need them. Now do you approve of these designs over here?” She asked me and I looked where she was pointing it was the animation panel room where it had been turned into a full on theater and I nodded my head clicking the check marked box. I saw that there was an indoor gym with fake grass that would basically be Jeremy’s domain as the sports lover of our relationship status.    


“ He’ll love it for sure I wonder if he’s doing okay. He had to leave pretty quickly from the park and just left us sitting on the swings together.” I swallowed not really knowing what had happened with Jeremy but also knowing that he would call me should he feel the need to.    


“I have no idea what’s going through his head a lot of the time but he’ll definitely feel right at home being the instructor here.” I clicked the box and moved onto the cafeteria checking over the menu that sported all different varieties of diet that made me super happy. 

“I think that this was the best idea that you’ve had since the Starkphone Abby and that was a really long time ago now. This is going to really help the people in the state of California since you’re building one over in the Phoenix area too right?” I nodded my head since I was already thinking about other places with numerous homeless people and I thought of Phoenix Arizona.    


“Yeah but that won’t be for quite some time so nobody panic. For right now I just want to focus on doing Rise of TMNT with my friends and possibly doing what Michael offered for me to do as well.” I got out my phone showing the message to Pepper who just hugged me tightly.    


“ You’re accomplishing all your goals that you set out for yourself honey I’m so proud of you. Even if your dad isn’t here right now he would tell you the exact same thing. You love anime and this is going to be your dream job right here so I recommend that you go for it no holds bar. You love this show anyways and think about all the great cons you could go to just by being a part of this show. You could get to travel to different ones too it would be great.” Pepper encouraged me and I smiled at my dad’s love interest.    


“I know!! I’m really excited about it, I could have the possibility of traveling with Kent Williams who was the original Hatori and Justin Cook who was Hatsuharu.” I smiled to myself as I got out my laptop and logged in going to my favorite local pizza restaurant.    


“Same thing as last time work with you Elliot? Or we can go half and half if that works better for you?” I asked my boyfriend and he peered over my shoulder smiling before flopping onto my couch.    


“The pineapple and olive was delicious so let’s get some of that shit please. I’m so dead on my feet it’s been a day and a half for me.” I smiled at my boyfriend before joining him on the couch and wrapping my arms around him after placing the order hearing the clicking of Pepper’s phone knowing that she was indeed taking pictures of this.    


“If you don’t send those pictures to me Pep I will officially not talk to you anymore.” I threatened and laughed at her when she just put her phone in her pocket. 

“I doubt that you’ll go that far, on that adorable note I’ll leave you two be. Thanks for approving everything so they can start construction right away.” Pepper gave a mock solute and I smiled at my friend as Elliot just leaned back against me. 

“Do you think that I’m a bad person for being transgender?” Elliot asked me and I looked down at my boyfriend in surprise seeing the tears that were starting to finally fall from his eyes.    


“Hun no I don’t think that at all. I think that you being trans makes you different and it makes you well you for lack of a better termanology. I wouldn’t change a thing about you from your sarcastic comments, your beautiful black hair and blue eyes that leave me breathless, the way that when you get excited your voice squeaks and you go back to the voice that the younger you had. I think that you’re easily the most beautiful person that I’ve ever seen aside from Jeremy but that’s kind of a given. Speaking of which I need to text him for emergencies. I know that you say that you’re fine but I’m not buying that for an instant.” I grabbed my phone texting a 911 to my boyfriend who thankfully didn’t live too far for me. 

_ Me: Jeremy, I’m really sorry to bother you if you’re busy but this is an absolute 911 emergency and I can’t do this by myself. Elliot told his dad about our relationship and he kicked him out of the house. I think this calls for Ben & Jerry's his favorite is cookie dough.  _

“That’s really not necessary baby I’m fine really.” I could tell that even though he said that it wasn’t really true not fully and I couldn’t do anything to really help him since I didn’t know how to deal with people crying in front of my that well. I heard my phone buzz and looked down with a sweet smile seeing that Jeremy had already gotten back to me. 

_ Jere-bear <3: Oh no!! That’s the worst news that I could have expected to get, I’m sorry that I bolted like that my mom wanted me to help her with grocery shopping. It was a really stupid thing but ice cream you got it sweetheart. Give him extra hugs and kisses until I get there!!  _   


“You are so not fine, I think that Jeremy will be better with this since he comes from a similar family dynamic with his stepfather being an utter asshole. He’s getting you cookie dough ice cream by the way since that’s how we solve all our problems.” I hugged my boyfriend waiting until he had to go up to the bathroom and I grabbed my laptop that I was using previously to do some research that would either help him or he could choose not to do it. I could find him the best doctor both through research and through my family.    


“What are you looking at?” Elliot asked me and I closed my laptop faster than I had closed anything at all.    


“Nothing, nothing at all find the restroom okay? There’s a lot of rooms here I probably should have shown you where it was.” I rubbed the back of my neck thanking god himself when Jeremy came rushing through the room grocery bag in hand and scooped Elliot into his arms. It warmed my heart to see my two best friends in the entire world right now so in love with one another and I knew that no matter what we would move past this obstacle and stay together. Jeremy carefully moved her to the couch and that’s when Elliot just broke down crying and it shattered my heart to pieces. 

“Shush it’s okay just let it all out my darling I’m here it’s all going to be okay.” Het told him hugging him tightly to him and I just watched from afar not wanting to get in the way of things and eventually snuck off to my room for a moment alone before picking up the Space Dandy penguin that I had bought at the con and hugged him tightly as I started to cry myself just feeling so helpless and like I couldn’t do anything right and not wanting to make anything worse. I curled into a little ball just crying my eyes out for not being able to help someone who meant the world to me without wanting to get in his way. Jeremy was better with emotions anyways. I reached down so that I could get my sketchbook since that was something that was bound to make me at least get distracted for a little while. I flipped to an empty page just wanting to loose myself in a piece of paper and a pencil with ink and color for a little while. I looked at the sketch that I would give to Michael this weekend and smiled he had loved it when I first met him that it shocked me when he said to give it to him at another point in time. I hadn’t even realized that Jeremy was standing in my doorway.    


“What the hell is wrong with you?! He needs both of us and you just leave him there?!” He yelled at me causing me to cower further into the small ball that I had made for myself.    


“ Because I can’t help him!! Do you know how that feels?! To see him crying and not knowing how to help him because you don’t understand what he’s going through?! I don’t understand or get emotions Jeremy it’s just a fact of life. You’re the emotional one that’s why I texted you because I can’t make his life better. You can and I don’t deserve him or you for that matter. I should just be alone it’s better that way anyways.” It was killing me to say the things that had been whispering in the back of my head telling me that this honeymoon stage could only last for so long before it all imploded on itself and I guess life was choosing now of all horrible times to do this to me. 

“That is such bullshit that you can’t help him. You’re the most emotional person that I know and don’t you dare blame this on your mental disorder. Just admit it, you’re scared that all of this will end with him breaking up with you. You might not understand what’s going on but you are both suffering right now. Abby, you’re my girlfriend and I love you more than anything in the entire world but sometimes you’re a total bitch to the people that you care about the most shutting them out like that. Come get some pizza you look like you could use it.” I shook my head just leaning back against my stuffed animals for support before curling into myself and crying even more than I already was. Was Jeremy really right? Was this all because I was a bitch for not talking about my life with other people? It’s my life so forgive me if I don’t want to bother other people with my problems. They all have their own issues to work through and they should have each other. Besides didn’t Elliot say that he was more gay than he was bisexual the other day when we were in New York during his confession? Did that make him more attracted to women or men? It didn’t matter they deserved better and maybe this was meant to happen since being in a relationship with me had to be a huge pain in the ass. I clutched my Space Dandy penguin and just dried my eyes knowing that they wouldn’t let me just sit here and wallow in self pity hearing Elliot’s laughter leave him. I stood there in the doorway seeing him looking happier than I had seen him looking all day and I knew that I had to do something that would break my heart but it would be for the better.    


“Abby? I’m so sorry that I lost my temper with--” I put my hand up stopping Jeremy right there because he had every right to yell at me.    


“No you were right Jeremy I shouldn’t be in relationship because I’m awful with people and most of the time when a person is crying I have no idea what to do. I’m a horrible best friend and a total bitch when it comes to feelings locking away the pain because that’s just easier than dealing with them and talking through them. You two would be better off without me or with another third party. I’ll only ever just get in your way from you two being happy together. I have friends and maybe that’s better than having a boyfriend. I can’t deal with sorrow well and I try to help I really do but Jere you’re so much better at the emotion than I am and I’m so sorry that I can’t be enough I’ll never be enough for either of you. It might be for the better if you two were together without me involved at all.” I crumbled to the floor dropping my penguin stuffed animal and putting my hands over my head as sobs wrecked through my body. Jeremy scooped me up in his arms just cradling me like you would a small child as Elliot looked at me in horror not knowing or understanding what was going on.    


“Abby, Abby that’s not true at all I was angry about the fact that I was doing all the work and I thought that you didn’t care seeing you all alone in your room crying there instead of out here trying to help me with Elliot. You’re not a bitch and that was a false accusation to call you one since you do understand emotion you just don’t know how to deal with the sad ones or the angry ones as much as the happy joyful ones. Why do you think that we would be happier without you? Abby I love you more than anything I really do so when you say things like that it hurts my heart because I don’t know where all this is coming from.” Jeremy carefully took me to the couch sitting me on his lap and Elliot came closer to me taking my hand.    


“B-Because he’s happier with you than he is with me. I’ve been trying all day to get him to laugh like that but I’ve only done it once and that was when I was telling a funny story of how Michael got into the voice acting industry.” I stuttered out and Jeremy just ran soothing motions down my back to try and calm me down.    


“You are more than enough for both of us and I really am trying to wrack my brain here to figure out where all of this is coming from. Abby how many times have I told you that you don’t have to carry that weight all on your own? You have friends and two boyfriends who aren’t going anywhere anytime soon that don’t want you to keep this kind of thing from them. I want you to tell me what makes you think that you’re not enough for both of us to be truly happy with you.” Jeremy told me pressing his forehead to mine trying to get me to convey what I was feeling that way.    


“You’ve told me it a hundred times and I’m sorry but I get it from my dad sometimes his worst character traits rub off on me. He doesn’t do that great with emotional talks either it’s why he always threw them to my uncle Rhodey. It’s so hard to burden people with my problems and they more often than not just implode on me like you just witnessed tragically. I lose control over my emotions at the worst of times and say things that I don’t really mean when I’m put under a lot of stress or I don’t feel that well to begin with. I woke up in a really bitchy mood and I should have postponed everything but I was worried about letting everybody down. I even yelled at Rob today I’ve never done that in all the years that he’s been by my side and that’s how I treat him over one stupid little prank and I just lose my temper with him. How does that make me look? Like an idiot and I hate feeling like I’m an idiot. I’m really sorry that I said those things and that you had to find out this way. I’m not the best at talking about everything in this way but I can try if you’ll just give me a second chance without me losing my control over my emotions.” I tried to explain to them what had just happened and suddenly it must have dawned upon Elliot.    


“ You’re starting to wonder if I’m really attracted to you or if it’s just me using you to get to Jeremy aren’t you? You want to know even though I’m trans what gender I’m attracted to more?” He asked me and I felt myself nodding my head as Elliot pulled me towards him wrapping his legs around my body and pulling me closer to him.    


“If you had just asked me this wouldn’t have happened the way that it did baby. You really need to work on your communication skills. Neither of us expect for you to be happy one hundred percent of the time and you shouldn’t need to lie to us on a bad day just because you’re scared we might lose respect for you. I’m attracted more to men than women but that doesn’t discredit me as a bisexual that’s just on the Kinsley scale and we all know just how accurate that is. I’m thoroughly attracted to you Abigail Stark make no mistake about that. You’re the most beautiful girl that I have ever seen and you love so openly with your big heart even if you don’t understand how feelings work much of the time. You can talk to me or to Jeremy just talk to somebody instead of losing your temper like that and start crying about how you don’t know if I’m attracted to my girlfriend whom I love.” He nuzzled my nose with his and Jeremy wrapped his arms behind me effectively squishing me in the middle of the cuddle sandwich. 

“I can’t believe that’s what you were freaking out about Abby you could’ve just asked.” Jeremy teased poking my cheek gently and I just pushed my face up against his.    


“You try having my anxiety and self esteem Mr. Confident and Cocky let’s see how you feel afterwards.” I shot back at him as I readjusted grabbing my penguin that was next to Jeremy and putting him in my lap grabbing a slice of pizza. I heard the doorbell ring surprisingly and I looked at Jeremy who stood up going to get the door until I heard a very familiar and pissed off sounding voice that I knew was directed at me.    


“Look, I don’t know what you’re doing here Altega but if you could please for the love of  _ fuck  _ move out of my way I’m a bitch here on a mission today and don’t have time to deal with your bullshit about her having a sensory overload.” I turned my neck so that I could see my old college roommate Mimi Martinez looking like she was about to spike my boyfriend’s head on a stake.    


“I’m talking to her and I didn’t drive all the way out here from MIT to just hear that I can’t see my baby sister so please move out of my way.” She shoved him seeing me sitting on the couch with the Space Dandy penguin on my lap as she sighed seeing that at the very least I was eating.    


“Hi Mimi, want some pizza?” I asked my old roommate as she just started to laugh at me and suddenly her foot was chiding with my side.    


“Hi Mimi? That’s the best I get after two weeks of not hearing from you?! Don’t you know that Viki who is sitting in the car currently and I were worried sick about you?” I gulped when I realized that I had been so busy I hadn’t kept them up to date with my personal life. 

“I’m really genuinely sorry Mimi but my life has been literally insane if you just get Viki in here and you sit down and meet Elliot I can explain everything. Actually what are you doing here? Don’t you two have classes?” I asked my best friend as Viki rushed to give me a giant hug and I hugged the woman who became like my older sister back.    
“We took two weeks off of leave and we’re doing all online classes this quarter. These are are last four classes can you believe it?! And then we can join the real world just like you!!” I could tell that Viki was excited and Elliot only looked at the two of them really confused while Jeremy carried in all their luggage. 

“Really? Well that’s great!! I’m sorry this really isn’t the best time for you two to visit. I kind of just had a bit of a mental breakdown but I have snacks and we ordered pizza I can order more if you two are hungry. All the snacks are of the vegetable and fruit variety though I haven’t been to the regular store in a long time only the farmers market that’s down in Venice Beach. Oh I’ll have to take you two down there!! You’ll just love Greg he’s amazing, he might be able to help you with your little anger problem there Mimi.” I teased and she just rolled her eyes at me pushing her glasses up her nose.    


“I can’t believe that you didn’t text us back you little brat. You had us worried sick we thought that you died.” Mimi told me sitting down on the couch next to Elliot and extending her hand.    


“I’m Mimi Martinez, sorry if that was a really weird introduction there. I’m kind of really protective over Abby, I was her roommate back in college along  with my girlfriend Viktoria Amoz.” Viki shook my boyfriends hand as she slung an arm around my shoulders.    


“So how’s the life of an actual voice actress? I have to know everything!!” She said enthusiastically as Jeremy sat down next Viki having his spot been taken by my best friend from college.    


“It’s actually pretty amazing, I’m rather glad that you two showed up because I have to leave again this weekend and I don’t want these to miss anymore school because of me leaving and coming back at random like I’ve been doing. So last Christmas around three weeks before the actual date Rob comes over and he has this early present for me to an anime con over in Florida that he got tickets to since he was doing a panel at the con the next week after that one in the next town over. It’s where I got this little guy and made a couple of friends who work over at Funimation one of them promising that one day get me as an actress in their arsenal. That man being the one and only Michael Tatum and he is now making good on his promise to me and having me go down there and audition for Momiji Sohma in the revived Fruits Basket this year. I want the two of you to come with me as moral support since I’m sure that after a few days here you’ll wind up bored since there really isn’t a whole lot of life in the house right now. It’ll be a short trip thankfully since I want to be back here as soon as possible but I might have to go and back and forth for a long time coming if I get this job since I’m working with Rise of TMNT thanks to Rob in all his fabulousness. He’s the one who pushed me forward and helped me get the job he’s amazing you’ll get to meet him next week at my birthday party.” I gave my explanation of the last few weeks for me and Viki let out an indginent squeal of pure and unadulterated joy. 

“I’ll get to see the actual Funimation studios?! Hells yes I’m going with her. Mimi you can stay here and be boring if that’s what you really want to but I wanna have some fun with Abby.” I laughed at my friend and Mimi just pushed up glasses and Viki animatedly introduced herself to my boyfriend.    


“Viktoria Amoz pleasure to meet you Elliot!! I roomed with her as well during her stay at MIT it was great. Are you staying here too?” She blinked her honey brown eyes at her as her strawberry blonde hair fell in front of her face.    


“Yes I will, I guess I wasn’t expecting company this soon. It’s great to meet both of you though I’ve heard great things about each of you from Abby. So you’re the ones that got her into Supernatural?” I could tell that Jeremy was massively uncomfortable with the new presence of my two old friends that I went to school for three years with even though I was constantly working they still were two of my favorite people especially of the female variety. 

“Yeah that was us, we love us some Supernatural and Doctor Who. I love a lot of shows but those two are my favorites.” Mimi seemed to be relaxing and I smiled at my good friend.    


“I just started watching it and it’s pretty great actually!! I love Dean Winchester he’s my boy.” Jeremy was finally getting comfortable with my two good friends and that caused me to let out a breath of relief.    


“Which begs the question, no offense Altega but what are you doing dating Katie one minute and my pure sweet innocent Abby the next?” I glared at Mimi for bringing up the K word that had pretty much been avoided this entire time.    


“Katie manipulated me and I was susceptible to her because I missed Abby once she left for college and was suddenly too busy to talk to me. She told me that my best friend left because of me and that she was sick and tired of me pinning after her and go out with her instead of Abby. Me being the stupid dumbass that I am said yes if only to please her but it went on for way too long and I should have broken it off way sooner with her or better yet not dated her at all.” Viki leaned her head onto my shoulder taking some of the pizza that we had ordered earlier.    


“I’m really sorry that happened Jeremy it sounds like hell and I hope that you forgive my girlfriend she’s just a mighty bit protective of yours.” She smiled happily at me and I knew that Viki would be one of the few people who would actually understand what I was going through since her dad was murdered after being captured by terrorists too but when she was in high school and he was just a techie. 

“It’s okay I probably deserve your rage and anger all I’m saying is that the language was unnecessary.” He joked having been used to it and that was just Mimi being herself you couldn’t change the fact that she had a language problem. 

“Sorry about that Altega I didn’t really mean to come off that harsh but you were in my way and I wanted to make sure that Abby was okay.” I knew that was the best apology that he was going to get probably from her but it was still better than nothing.    


“I think I’ll stay here you two go ahead and have fun in Texas without me. I should check out these two anyways to make sure that they’re suitable for you Abby.” I rolled my eyes at my best friend seeing my boyfriends both blanch and turn white as sheets.    


“Mimi you really don’t have to do that. They’re suitable you don’t need to panic about that though if you would really rather stay here than I can’t drag you on the Starkplane with me. I’ll just have to take your girlfriend as my hostage.” I joked and she laughed at me hugging onto my arm and I smiled at Viki who was always really clingy with me. She’s probably where I got my love of cuddling from. 

“It’s really fine, we’re all only children here but we both know how this type of thing works. Besides we’ll both be around for quite some time right Elliot?” Jeremy asked his boyfriend and he nodded his head as Mimi noticed the stuffed animal that I had.    


“Oh my god!! That’s so cute, can I see him?” I nodded my head giving her the stuffed animal that had meant the world to me since Ian Sinclair himself had bought him for me much to my arguing that I could’ve bought him.    


“The voice actor for Dandy got him for me at the con, his name is Ian Sinclair ew became pretty good friends actually by the end of that weekend. There was also Micah Soulsod too oh we had fun. We created this game where we would go around to random people at the con and he would do a character voice to try and trip them up where they had to guess the show, character and who he was. I’m sure that he was pretty embarrassed that almost nobody guessed his name. They all knew the characters but nobody knew the actual man.” I pulled out my phone that was on the cushion in front of us and went through my videos finding my personal favorite one.    


“This is one of my favorite over dramatic characters that he’s ever played, it’s Kirill from Double Decker. It’s funny because he’s the only one that even sounds remotely like him and most people I guess didn’t really see it which makes me a little sad.” I showed them a couple other videos that were on my phone and they all got a good laugh out of watching Michael show people how to do the typical evil laugh that he did for Okabe. 

“I can’t believe you got to meet all these cool people!! I mean if you got to meet Vic before this mess happened to him I would have to take your place and live your life instead.” I laughed somewhat awkwardly at Viki since she wouldn’t like me a whole lot after this.    
“She did get to meet him but didn’t really bond with him as much as she did with Ian, Michael and Micah because she felt too awkward around him. She said that even if she wanted to talk to him he had been replaced by Michael anyways the older that she got and they became good friends so that’s what is really important.” I smiled thankfully at Elliot for talking for me since I really didn’t want to bring up that train wreck again.    


“He was this untouchable person when I first saw him and sure I could talk to him with a big group but once we all went our separate ways I mostly followed Michael around or Ian or Micah to raise some hell and have some fun. They were great with me I really learned a lot from all three of them from following them around the con area. They all bought me something as a gift I have the stuffed penguin from Ian, there’s a Kirill figurine in my room right now obviously from Micah since that’s what I wanted and an Okabe as well from Michael.” I showed them images of all the things that I had gone home with thankful that I had brought an extra luggage.    


“I’m surprised that I never noticed all those things were from different people I just assumed that you bought them online when they went on sale. That’s amazing though that they all loved you so much they wanted to get you something to remember them with.” Jeremy dotted and I think that’s when Viki noticed that she had stolen his spot as she moved over to sit with Mimi and Jeremy wrapped his arms around me pulling me closer.    


“I had no idea I guess that it makes sense we did kind of hold him on this pedestal of voice acting. It really broke Viki’s heart to have to read that news it probably did for you too. Sorry I probably shouldn’t keep talking about it. What show are you going to be working on again? I kind of wasn’t paying attention.” I laughed at Mimi since she was probably still in overprotective mama mode when I told her.    


“Well you know how they are remaking Fruits Basket? They haven’t casted my year yet, the year of the bunny Momiji and Michael thinks that I could be perfect for the role so he recommended me to Justin apparently and now they want me down there even though my birthday is Monday.” I told my old friend and she just looked at me in surprise since that happened to be her favorite anime and manga.    


“No way?! They’re remaking my favorite show?! I watched it all throughout high school and got her to read the manga since she had already watched the anime multiple times!! I can’t wait to see all my favorite characters again, tell me that they’re bringing back all the popular voices I need to hear these words.” I laughed at my old friend putting my feet up and relaxing with my best friends.    


“They are bringing back all the originals baby, you don’t know about this? I guess this quarter has been really hard on you since you’re working way more than normal. She wants to teach electronics and technology at our college one day since our teacher made her his protege the first day of class our freshman year.” I laughed at the memory of old Mr. Lopez and how he had seen the first Latina girl and went you’re my new favorite group of students since he looped me and Viki with her.    


“He’s still going on about that? We had this really badass electronics teacher the first year that we were there Mr. Lopez who all looked up to and admired. The first day of class he made me, Viki and Mimi his new favorite group of students since we were the only ones to ace this quiz that he gave on the first day to see what we knew about technology and electronics. I felt like I would have brought dishonor to my family if I hadn’t done the best in the class because of my dad.” Mimi nodded her head but I could tell by the small smile on her face that she was happy with her life.    


“You know something Abby? I don’t think that I’ve ever seen you this happy and content after having such a rough day.” She noted and I nodded my head as I melted into Jeremy’s strong arms around my and Elliot was in front of me his legs still tangled with mine and holding my hand.    


“ I really shouldn’t have gone outside today but I did and I made a complete fool of myself yelling at Rob like I did. It was a simple prank and I totally blew it out of proportion.” Elliot just moved the hair out of my eyes for me kissing my forehead gently.    


“It’s Rob baby, he’s not mad at you he couldn’t ever be angry with you. You had a stressful day it’s not your fault for losing your temper it was a very exciting day for you.” Elliot comforted me and told me with a soft tone knowing that was the best way to gage this reaction. 

“I thought that your anger was entirely justified Abby you were so good out there and we’re both very proud of you for standing your ground and getting mad.” Mimi told me and I smiled at my good friend for standing by my side.    


“Where’s this doggie that I keep hearing about?” Viki asked and at that moment my little girl showed up right next to her and I heard the typical reaction that most people had about my puppy.    


“Awww look at her little face she’s soo cute!!” She gushed and Belle just looked at her with her head to the side as Viki scratched between her ears. 

“I got her with a friend of mine that you two are going to meet tomorrow since I feel like I need to see him. He helps me with my center of gravity and learning actual coping mechanisms for my anxiety instead of just dealing with it the way that I usually do. He’s great you’ll love him the only reason I’m not telling you what his name is because I want to surprise you guys with who he is.” They had both grown up loving Beast Boy and Raven just like I had so I knew that meeting Greg Cipes would be a life changer for both of them. 

“What has he been teaching you?” Mimi asked me curiously and I smiled at my good friend for worrying about me.    


“You’re going to laugh at me and think that it’s hippy dippy bullshit but it’s meditation and clearing your mind of all the bad things in your life. He’s really helpful and you’ll love him.” I told Mimi and she just cocked her head to the side as if to say meditation really.    


“It’s not as hippy as some might think and ever since she met him he’s been helping her out continuously with actually dealing with her anxiety instead of just projecting it onto somebody else.” I smiled at the fact that Jeremy was defending my good friend from their judgemental gaze.    


“Well I’m sure that he’s amazing!! I can’t wait to meet him if he’s as great as you say that he is. I thought that your shoes were really cute, where did you get them?” She must have been talking about my Beast Boy sneakers that I had worn during the interview and I had to think up a quick fib to make her think that I hadn’t gotten them Greg. 

“There was this nerdy shop in New York where I purchased both of them. It was also where I got the hoodie that I’m currently wearing and a pair of Invader Zim slip on shoes.” I told them which really wasn’t a technical lie because they had Beast Boy themed shoes there too but these meant far more to me than anything else did.    


“Oh wow!! I’ll bet that you had so much fun, we watched you last weekend and thought that you were really great out there.” Mimi told me and I pushed a stray lock of hair behind my ear.    


“I was so nervous before getting that done and then once I got back to the hotel I basically flat out died. They had to spend Valentine's Day without me basically since I didn’t sleep that well the night before due to being way too nervous.” Jeremy snuggled next to me keeping me grounded as Mimi took a slice of our pizza.    


“It was still fun though we got Invader Zim for her while we were out and we got back to the hotel and basically just popped popcorn and relaxed before our night showing of Phantom Of The Opera which was so good!! I had only ever seen the shitty movie version even though I still like it fine.” Elliot had surprised me with being a huge fan of musical theater something that I had learned over the weekend that we were there.    


“It was still a nice Valentine’s Day, arguably the best that I’ve ever had through all my relationships that meant almost nothing to me.” I could tell what Mimi’s next question would be which would be why did you date all those people to begin with.    


“If you don’t mind me asking Jeremy, why did you date all those people to begin with when you could’ve just been seeing Abby?” Mimi asked him and I wanted to give myself an air high five for figuring it out what I had asked her.    


“I was a stupid kid so all of that dating and trying to be with other people was basically me just not knowing how I was good enough for somebody that I thought was way out of my league. I dated because it was something to do and somebody to spend my time with to keep the loneliness at bay. Especially once Abby left and that’s when I started being friends with benefits with Katie. I’ve made mistakes and I’ve been an asshole basically my entire life and this is me trying my damndest to make those changes and be the man that she needs me to be.” Jeremy answered the question honestly and with zero conviction towards my friend for asking such a personal question. 

“You shouldn’t have done that and should have just been honest about what you really wanted. Now Tony hates you because of the torture that you put Abby through and you’re going to have to work even harder to get the respect that you deserve to date her.” Viki told him and Jeremy just sighed next to me knowing that he would have to pull some major groveling action when my dad got back.

“I’ll have to get through integration though too and he’s bound to have a lot of questions for me since we only knew each other about a week before the three of us started dating. It’s not that I regret it or anything not for a moment but he’s going to have words with me especially now that I have no place to stay.” I squeezed Elliot’s hand trying to comfort my boyfriend who was distraught with the proper reasoning.    


“I’m sure that whatever your situation is Tony will understand he’s got a big heart thankfully something that Abby actually taught him to have.” Mimi told my boyfriend ruffling his hair and I knew that’s when he was instantly accepted into the group.    


“Alright change of subject please since I feel like my heart is going to explode just watching the three of you, who wants to watch a movie?” Mimi asked us sifting through our expansive movie collection before landing with a loud aha before holding up one of my all time favorite movies Godfather II.    


“I knew this was in there somewhere. Have you two seen the first one? I showed Abby this after her first film class where she watched the original.” Elliot and Jeremy both nodded their heads and she slipped the movie into the player and sat back down on the couch as I grabbed my ice cream since I had eaten my fair share of the pizza that was there. We watched all three hours of the movie before Jeremy went home for the night.    


“Do you think that you four will be okay? I can pull whatever strings I need to stay the night here.” Jeremy told me and I kissed my boyfriend who wrapped his arms around me in turn.    


“ I think that you should take Elliot out tomorrow, I’ll probably spend a majority of the day down in Venice and I don’t want him here alone. I need to leave the day after tomorrow. I hate having to leave him here. I’m so nervous about doing this audition.” Jeremy held up his finger taking off his Almight hoodie that he had been wearing before putting it over my shoulders. It was too big on me but the sentiment was there and it warmed my heart.    


“So you don’t get nervous because he’s the strongest person that I know on the screen. He’s willing to stand there and fight for vengeance even if he’s scared and smile brightly at everyone making them smile in return.” Jeremy encouraged and kissed the end of my nose gently before getting in the car and driving away. He had to be so strong it made me wonder how often he lied to himself about the type of strength that he exhibited. I went back inside to brush my teeth before I went to my room and saw that my sketchpad was still laying there on my bed and I took out the clean page starting the sketch that would encompass my three favorite favorite things that Bevins had ever done in his career. Sero would come in over the top and slide in on his tape while Japan would be sitting with a cat on the bottom of the sketch and Tsukimi and Kuranosuke would be front and center designing the Jellyfish dresses. I realized that I had completely forgotten to message Michael back since all the chaos had happened to me during the day.    


_ Me: I’ll be there!! I feel like I can’t just stay in one place anymore it’s so weird I’m used to just going on if I’m lucky two trips a year with my dad. Maybe it’s because he’s not here right now and I miss him so much that the house feels empty. Thanks for not letting your own opinion of Vic come through I know that you have a really personal emotion right now towards what’s going and you were nice enough to not tell me what actually happened. I want to find out what happened through the horse's mouth or rather the investigators mouths. I can’t believe that you’re actually doing this for me Michael. I thought that you were just telling me that to make me feel better about never being able to be an actress. I’m proud of myself if I’m being truly honest this is the first time that I’ve ever truly felt pride in something that I’ve done. Oh that’ll be great if I get to be Shiraise!! I’ve always wanted to work with Bevins in the director’s chair despite your warnings against me working with him.  _ I heard the knock at the door startling me out of my writing and I turned off my phone to give the person on the other side my full undivided attention.    


“Come in the doors open!!” I called out seeing Elliot at the front of my room in Supernatural pajamas.    


“Can I umm sleep in here? I’m worried I’ll get nightmares if I wind up sleeping alone tonight.” I nodded my head getting out my pens and pencils that I would use to define all these different roles and characters while Elliot cracked open a book and laid his head on my shoulder. I finished my drawing and put it away for the night before deciding that it would be best if I join my boyfriend where he had fallen asleep with Belle across his legs. I went to my side and fell asleep when Elliot rotated so that he was facing me to pull me closer. We slept through most of the night once I grabbed my Abby Cadabby stuffed animal who kept my nightmares away. The sun's rays are what woke me up as well as being alone in the bed hearing my boyfriend’s laughter from outside. I slowly padded my way to where my best friends and boyfriend were sitting making waffles.    


“Oh good morning!!” Viki waved to me handing me my morning smoothie and I sighed thankfully after I took my medicine.    


“Morning Vik thanks for the smoothie I really appreciate it. Where did you find that old dinosaur I haven’t seen it in forever. My dad used to make me waffles before elementary school on Fridays.” I smiled at my best friend sitting down at the bar next to my boyfriend who kissed my cheek.    


“Thank you for letting me stay in your room last night I slept great with your little pupper nagging at my feet all night long. She’s great at keeping me grounded.” I nodded my head gently ruffling my dog’s ears.    


“Yeah she really is. Belle is such a pretty little girl aren’t you?” She just barked in response liking the space in between my fingers.    


“We found it above the stove and started instantly craving waffles. You had a surplus of fruit though so we made fruit salad as well and if you quote The Wiggles before nine in the morning I swear to God Viki baby I will end you.” Her girlfriend just laughed and started to hum the song that she was talking about.    


“I used to watch them all the time when I was growing up!!  _ Yummy yummy yummy fruit salad!!” _ Elliot took the joke and ran with it singing it with gusto and I just laughed at my boyfriend.    


“That’s it Elliot, you’re officially being demoted as my preferred boyfriend of my younger sister.” Mimi teased and I could tell that she was joking around with her as I leaned back against his arm around my shoulders.    


“Hey it’s not my fault that you apparently had zero childhood Mi I love me some classic live action shows too but that one was my favorite much to my dad’s everlasting horror and embarrassment. He lost the argument about having my eighth family birthday themed to them and he joked that it was an embarrassment.” I laughed at the memory that I would always carry with me as I showed my boyfriend pictures of me and my dad all dressed up as our favorite wiggle where I was Greg. 

“Aww you were so cute when you were a little girl. I would have loved that birthday party since that was my favorite show other than Spongebob and Teen Titans. I loved the music and would listen to the soundtrack all the time it drove my parents insane.” Viki took my phone and looked at the pictures that I had shown her.    


“Oh thank you my dad always says that I was so cute when I was a little girl I was so cute and then he would look at me now and ask what happened. This was his favorite party that we ever had together even if he tells you it wasn’t.” I smiled at the memory of him holding me up so I could reach the top of my cake since it was actually bigger than I was at that time.    


“I think that you’re the most beautiful girl that I’ve ever seen.” Elliot told me and I blushed a bright pink looking through all the images that were from the birthday party until I came to this image of my uncle Rhodey holding me up on his shoulders while my dad gave me my favorite shirt that I had back then. I texted it to my uncle hoping that he would like it since it was such a treasure.    


“Is that your uncle? He looks really great with you and unique with you in mind.” Elliot told me and I smiled at my boyfriend since he was so caring towards me.    


“Yeah that’s my incredible uncle Rhodey he works with the army. He’s probably working with finding my dad and I love him so much. I haven’t been with him in a really long time and he’s my best friend most days.” I gave more of my backstory with my dad and Viki gave me back my phone.    


“She has a really small family but they are also extremely tight nit. Her uncle even came to her graduation party and he was great.” My two best friends had actually really gotten along with my incredible uncle. He was always really talkative with me and I smiled at the memory that I could carry with me for the rest of time.    


“He’s amazing, he really loves you a whole lot Abby and that much is obvious. Rhodey is her uncle even if her father and him aren’t really brothers it’s just what she’s always called him even when she was a little girl.” Mimi told me and she kissed her girlfriend’s cheek handing me my waffle that was in the shape of Mickey Mouse with maple syrup as well and I tuckered into my meal easily really hungry. I finished my breakfast quickly and went to go and get dressed for my day after I showered picking out my Kim Possible shirt that I had been given by John DiMaggio that had Dr. Drakken with his lather, rinse and obey with a pair of jean shorts as I grabbed my surfboard that had Beast Boy on it and my swimsuit underneath my clothes. 

“Are we going to ride in baby?!” Viki asked me excitedly putting her own swim bag into the back of my car and I nodded my head.    


“Yeah we sure are!! I know that you’ve been wanting to ride in her and I’m excited to show you how she rolls. Where’s Mimi?” I asked her and the woman in question just randomly started to appear and she sat down in the backseat next to her girlfriend.    


“I’m right here. Let’s hit the road Sammy!!” I laughed at her comment about my hair and started to drive to the beach where they would get to meet the one and only man who changed my life Greg Cipes. It was a beautiful day outside and once the sun hit my face I felt instantly better as Belle barked at the random dogs that were on the beach that we were passing as we parked the car down the road from Greg’s house. I went to grab my surfboard and held Belle’s leash since I knew as soon as she saw Wingman she would just go running for him. I saw the dog in question splashing through the water and Greg sitting cross legged and closed eyed on the beach. The instant that Wingman saw Belle though and started avidly barking at her I unclipped her leash and she ran away from me towards her best friend.    


“Well hi there Abby, it looks like you’re actually here with a couple of friends today.” I smiled at my friend as he spoke to me in the voice of Beast Boy and I heard the two gasps that were easily from my two best friends.    


“Hi there Greg, yeah these are my two college roommates who just randomly showed up at my house last night. This one is Mimi Martinez and this is her girlfriend Viki Amoz. Guys this is the friend that has recently changed my life for the better Greg Cipes the voice of Beast Boy.” I introduced my two best friends to the man who had came into my life and taught me so much more about grounding my emotions and being able to talk about them freely. 

“Hi!! Oh my god I am huge fan of your work!! I’m Viki, I grew up watching Beast Boy and he’s my favorite Teen Titan. I should have thought that this is who she when she mentioned how she got the shoes.” I smiled at my old roommate and I sat down on the sand next to my good friend.    


“Oh the shoes were my favorite thing in her bag that I gave her during the first time that I met her. Other than the surfboard anyways it’s awesome did she show it you?” I shook my head flipping it around and they saw Beast Boy surfing and transforming into different animals with his adorable bright smile and his tooth hanging over his bottom lip.    


“Awww that’s so cute, I’m Mimi the more serious and cautious one of the two of us. Viki’s the more loud and bombastic one of the two of us.” She introduced herself to my friend who shook both of their hands. 

“It’s a pleasure to meet both of you, any friend of Abby’s is a friend of mine. What degrees are you both going for?” Greg asked them as I went to sit next to him crossing my legs and closing my eyes instantly relaxing and feeling better.    


“I’m going for my doctorate so that I can take over my professors job and it’s my last quarter there at college right now and I’m handling it online. I’m twenty five and I’ve been there since I was eighteen.” Mimi told him and she smiled to herself doing the same thing that I was.    


“I’m just going for my technology degree, I’ll probably wind up being just some run of the mill IT person at some big company. I wanted to be an artist but my parents didn’t think that was a good enough career.” Viki was one of the best artists that I had ever met and she taught me a lot about sketching my favorite characters.    


“I’m sorry to hear that happened to you, do you still draw in your free time?” He asked her and she nodded her head.    


“She taught me a good percentage of what I know about art so I owe her a lot in that regard. I’ve told her that she doesn’t have to do what her parents tell her because she’s a full fledged adult now but she doesn’t really listen to me. I mean I guess I’m one to talk a doctorate in electronics and technology and what do I want to do with my life? I decide to be a voice actor. I don’t know if that’s just sad or what. I’m a certifiable genius, I should be doing something with that certificate.” I sighed deeply wondering if my dad would be disappointed with my career choice or if he would support me. It was a lot to ask a person and I had no idea how he would feel about this.    


“Just because you’re smart Abby doesn’t mean that you can’t do the things that you want with your life. Tony would want for you to have the happiness that he never thought he could get. He had to work so hard to get to where he was that he didn’t have the time to enjoy it. It’s why he wanted for you to go to art school instead of technology. He wanted you to accomplish your goals and aspirations and one day stand beside you as you stood in front of Funimation studios. I know that you miss him and he’s going to be really upset when he comes back here only to find out that you’ve already had your audition at the studio for voice acting.” Mimi told me squeezing my hand and I repeated the motion back to her.    


“What’s this about another audition? Didn’t you just get back from New York?” Greg asked me and I smiled leaning my head towards the sky with a small grin on my face.    


“A friend of mine that I met at a con who works in the anime industry, his name is J Michael Tatum but he just goes by Michael. He offered me a job for this really minor side character in a reboot of one of my favorite animes just to get me off the ground a role as Momiji Sohma in the reboot of Fruits Basket. I grew up loving anime, since I was eleven years old in my freshman year of high school. I graduated when I was thirteen and spent five years getting my doctorate since I spent almost no time slacking off. Anyways, back to the point at hand, Rob gave me this Christmas present in November of last year and it was tickets to the anime con in Florida. I got to meet a ton of my favorite voice actors, Michael was just the one that I bonded with the most out of all of them and he made me a promise that he would be the one to get me off the ground in terms of the voice acting industry it’s just Rob beat him to it.” I gave him a bit more of the backstory and I could tell that he was proud of me for coming all this way in such a short amount of time.    


“I like to think that Tony would be proud of you no matter what you did because that’s just how a parent is with their child. He loves you so much Abby not because you’re a certifiable genius but because you’re his little girl. It’s clear in the way that he talked about you with us when he visited those times. He would come down there at least three times a year because he missed her so much. Tony never wanted you to be the head of Stark Industries since it destroyed him somewhere deep down and never wanted that for you. He knew you wouldn’t be happy there and that’s when he decided that he would start looking elsewhere for prodigies.” I smiled at Viki for trying to make me feel better as I sat and meditated with my close friends beside me. 

“I guess I never thought of it in that way. I got so hung up on trying to make him proud of me thinking that going to tech school at the same place that he did was the only way to do that. I couldn’t even do something that I wanted to do or that I found pleasure in I had to please my dad. I didn’t even think that he would be proud of me no matter what and I guess that’s my fault for ignoring the obvious.” I looked down at the shorts that I was wearing wishing that my dad was just down the hall from me so I could throw my arms around him in a big hug. 

“Sometimes we don’t realize the really important things until it’s far too late to think about them. I am of the firm belief that everyone has this innate need to make somebody close to them proud of their accomplishments. You just let that cloud your judgement Abby and that was where you failed in accomplishing your personal goals.” Greg was always the best to go for when you when you were looking for advice.    


“Okay I have a question that’s kind of off topic, did you make all those animal sounds yourself?” Viki asked my new friend and I shook my head at her for changing the subject to something that really ate at me for years.    


“I did do all those animal voices since they are all unique to BB himself. Let me ask both of you something, what is your favorite cartoons now that you’re older?” I smiled to myself and I knew this answer to this question.    


“I love Futurama myself. It’s been my favorite since it first came out and nothing makes me laugh harder. I watched it when I was around fifteen yes I had a dark sense of humor for back then.” Mimi told him happily and I nodded my head knowing that would have been her answer.   


“Mine is actually Rick and Morty!! I have an obsession with space travel and it’s a really big problem ever since the show first came out. I would’ve wanted to be an astrophysicist but my parents didn’t think that I could do it so I lived with being a techie. I think that my favorite song is Goodbye Moonmen since it’s just so beautiful and even if it is easily romantical and meme worthy the entire show is that basically personified, It’s one of the reasons that I found it so funny.” Viki really loved her favorite cartoon and without discretion so did I and it was so hard to choose between that and Futurama for me.    


“That one is my preferred choice as well, what about you Abby?” Greg asked me and Mimi just laughed at me as I struggled to figure out which option I would choose this time.    


“It’s nearly impossible for her to choose one over the other and each time she weighs her options and picks one of the two every time somebody asks.” I rolled my eyes at her finally figuring out my definitive answer that I would go with from now on.    


“It is a really hard question because there’s a lot of things that I love and treasure about both shows but if you were to twist my arm and make me tell you one over the other I have to say it’s probably going to be Rick & Morty. I know that I praise Futurama because of its characters but it’s so hard for me to pick a favorite from this show. I think I would say it’s Rick because I could see a lot of my own qualities in him just the bad ones are really personified but there have been moments where I’ve acted more like than others. I love the music, especially Viki’s favorite because it’s one of those where I can just close my eyes and pretend that I’m on a spaceship traveling through the incredible planets that this show made. The atmosphere is amazing as well as character development and backstory besides it’s one of the few shows where the main character is actually queer and that means something to me especially. I should really show that one to Jeremy I think that he would get a real kick out of these crazy characters going on adventures. It makes me laugh like crazy sometimes at some of these interactions and even though Futurama did too that is my answer that I love me some Rick & Morty. I’ve gotta get that show as a part of my collection soon since I always just mooched off of Viki’s that she has.” I could go on for hours about why I loved both shows but these two were some of the biggest where I had to way my pros and cons about both. 

“And she finally has made a decision!! Praise the lord and savior.” I shoved my best friends right arm gently and she just laughed at me.    
“You make it sound like it changes all the time!! Usually after a couple of minutes of thinking about and if they’ll judge me I’ll just be honest and say Rick & Morty. 

“I know she’s just messing with you Abby you know how Mimi gets. Plus she’s just bitter that you took my side of the argument. What about Elliot which one does he prefer? I can see him being a Futurama fan so that would make him on her side of the argument.” I texted my boyfriend wondering myself since I knew he loved Futurama but had no idea about my personal favorite show on Adult Swim. 

_ Me: So me, Mimi and Viki always get into this somewhat meaningless argument about which show is better, Rick and Morty or Futurama. I know that you love one of them but my personal favorite is the former over the latter if you were to make me pick one of the two.  _   


“It’s not meaningless, you’re just upset because my show is better.” I rolled my eyes at Mimi and Greg just laughed at her.    


“Well both tell different stories and it’s just up to the person to decide which one is better than the other if we have different tastes. It helps that Abby is obsessed with science so that’s probably why she prefers the one that she does.” I nodded my head because finally somebody understood what I was talking about. 

“That’s true, plus I’m a sucker for good music and that show has some of the best new music in cartoons. I can just close my eyes and imagine that I’m sitting there with these characters having a conversation with them. That’s my favorite type of cartoons and animation is when the characters seem so real that you can’t tell whether or not they were ever on a piece of paper.” I could never really control my words very well especially once I got to talking.    


“Awwwww she’s so cute once she gets to talking about her favorite cartoons. I love asking her those types of questions because she can just go on for hours.” I smiled at my good friend for dealing with me and supporting me no matter what. I saw Steven and Ethan coming up the walkway on their skateboards and we spent the rest of the day together as I found out that Elliot actually preferred Rick and Morty.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi all!! This has been a while since I've been working on this chapter and this is probably one of my favorites because we get the return of two of my favorite OC's Mimi and Viki. I have yet to start watching Rick & Morty truly but it's one that I've always been interested in watching maybe after I finish my rewatch of Invader Zim.


	6. Chapter six

The next morning I woke up to Elliot shaking in his sleep. I looked at the clock seeing that it was past three in the morning but I needed to wake him up since it looked like a bad nightmare.    


“No dad I can be who you want me to be, if you want me to be a girl than I will…” I shook his shoulder gently to try and wake him up but he was a really heavy sleeper something that I had learned from that first sleepover.    


“Elliot… Elliot… Elliot!! Come on honey just wake up for me it’s a nightmare it’s not real.” I wrapped my arms around him tightly and Belle who was laying at my feet started licking Elliot’s face to try and wake him up. He woke up nearly hitting me in the face with his panting heart and rapid breathing.    


“You’re alright, you’re not there anymore. I’m going to be protecting you and so will Belle and trust me when I say that she’s the best guard dog that you could ever ask for. Everytime that Obadiah's car comes up the driveway she starts barking like a madwoman.” I tried to joke and make her laugh but it wasn’t successful all I got was a watery sob as he clung to my shoulders crying his eyes out.    


“ Shush, you’re okay I got you out of that house and you’ll never have to go back. My dad is going to be back here and he’ll fight to protect you as well. It’s what he taught me to do, when you love somebody you fight to keep them safe. You’re not alone anymore and if I have anything to say about it you’ll never feel alone again.” I comforted my boyfriend rubbing small circles down his back as he got my sleep shirt all wet but I couldn’t care less.    


“W-Why are you so good to me?” I hardly even recognize my boyfriend’s voice it was so watery and weak.    


“ I’m good to you because you’re good to me it’s as simple as that. I love you Elliot, even if I’ve hardly known you for even a month I do it’s the honest truth. Sometimes I wonder what you’re doing with me too but it’s never good to go down that road. Would it maybe help if I sang to you?” I asked my boyfriend who nodded his head at me.    


“Okay I can do that, any requests?” He shook his head and I thought for a moment before it hit me. I started to sit up to just grab my guitar that was sitting up on the chair in the corner of my room.    


“I’m just going to get my guitar trust me when I say that you don’t want me to do acapella.” He nodded his head at me before I went to go and grab my guitar sitting cross legged on my bed before starting to sing the song that pretty much every fan Rick & Morty loved and my favorite Goodbye Moonmen. It was something about space that I just loved and when you had Jemaine Clement sing your song that was themed to space it was pretty much asking to be one of my favorite songs of all time. It’s one of the thousands of reason why I love to watch my favorite adult cartoon because it could either make me cry tears of laughter at a really funny joke or tears of pain at moments like these where the music touched me emotionally. I had dreamed about space travel when I was a really little girl and always wanted to know what was out there but had too much anxiety about it. So I wound up taking the safer route and just being myself with the doctorate in electronics and engineering that I didn’t really want either.    


“How is it that you always make me feel better? When I’m with you the world hurts less and I can easily sort everything out. How do you do it?” Elliot asked me once my song was finished and I knew that if he was feeling he would have told me to shut the fuck up about Moonmen.    


“I would want to ask you the exact same question hun. You made my world less closed off due to the brick wall that is my anxiety on steroids. I feel more capable and in control over my emotions when I talk with you. You’re not a freak because your trans in fact you’re just the opposite. I need to talk to you about an idea I had the night before last.” I laid down next to him entwining his fingers with mine kissing his hand gently like he would with me if I was in his shoes. I had to breach this topic gently if we were going to discuss it because most likely he wasn’t binding properly and I saw tape around his midsection the other morning when we were all at the park and the wind rose his shirt up while on the swings.    


“You can say no if you’re comfortable with the testosterone that I ordered for you but this is just an idea if you truly want to feel at one with your body. I was wondering what might your opinions be on top surgery?” I asked Elliot choosing my words carefully in the back of my head not wanting to breach it harshly and have him retaliate by yelling at me.    


“I’ve always wanted to do it and I had a good friend back in Colorado who had highly supportive parents who paid for his surgery but they had to save up for a really long time and I knew that my dad would say no.” I listened to his opinions before grabbing my laptop that was at the foot of my bed right there on the floor.    


“What would you say if I offered to pay for you to get it?” I had been thinking about this and even done the proper research to know what I was asking for and that it would be a lot of money especially for a good doctor but I had money in spads since I hardly ever bought anything when I wasn’t at a con or on a trip and found something cute.    


“I wouldn’t stand for it!! I know that you have the money saved up since you hardly buy much even when we went to New York you offered to pay for me and Jeremy’s items but this is too much even for me. I’m fine with my tape binding.” I leaned down so that my head was resting beside his squeezing his hand reassuringly.    


“I knew you would say that honey but can you please just hear me out? Tape binding with scotch tape isn’t safe in the slightest trust me I know for a fact that it isn’t because I had a friend in college who did it and wound up in the hospital because he cut off his circulation of blood in his upper body. At the very least think about it? Or let me buy you proper binders and stop using tape please? It’s not safe and I don’t want you to wind up in the hospital. I have a lot of money let me do something nice for you that will help you in the future feel better about your body. I love you Elliot and I want to help you out with this predicament because maybe I’m just too nice to people that are in my inner circle. I think that it’s hard enough to break through walls that once you get there I’ll love the people there for the rest of my life.” I promised him and he just looked at me before looping his arms around my neck and kissing me passionately. 

“Baby, I’m so glad that you care so much about me and my mental health but I think that surgery is a bit much for me right now. I want to wait until your father comes back if he ever does and then we’ll discuss it further. For right now I will agree that there have been some moments that I have felt like fainting with my ace bandages it wasn’t scotch tape but ace. Let’s look at binders though just for fun a little bit later. Can we change the subject to something a little bit lighter maybe? What’s your favorite character from Rick & Morty? Mine’s Morty personally, he reminds me a little bit of you and I find him to be the most emotional stable out of all of those crazy characters.” I laughed leaning my head back as Belle curled up in my arms just laying her little head on my chest.    


“My favorite is Rick actually mostly because sometimes I feel like I act like that on little sleep. I start to slur my words like he does when drunk, I act like I know everything and I’ve been known to act like an asshole when I’m really tired just ask Mimi and Viki when it gets to be a better hour they’ve seen me during a college finals week. His lines are also some of the funniest that I often quote with my dad because he’s seen it too, I showed it to him when he caught me watching it around two years ago when I was home for winter break and he took some time off to spend with me. I’ve kept him up to date with the newer seasons on my laptop by emailing them to him as well when hulu gets the newer season. I think his favorite if you were to ask him would probably be get riggity riggity wrecked. For months that was all he would text me when I complained about not being able to talk to him due to the homework load I had.” Elliot got a good laugh out of that and it made me smile that at least one thing was right with the world.    


“Do you ever wish that you were his real daughter instead of his adoptive one?” He asked me moving so that he was resting his head on my shoulder playing with the waves of my hair.    


“A lot of the time yeah, I do wish I could’ve been his biological child. Everyone around me tells me how alike I am to him even though I’m not his real daughter. But at the same time sometimes I feel like of all the kids in the world why would he pick me? He could have anyone that he wanted to be his baby girl but he picked me out the lot why? Because I’m smart? Because even at five I understood his techno babble and even did it myself? I know these aren’t the real reasons but at the same time part of my brain just wonders and this is the shit that keeps me up at night wondering if he regrets picking me.” I never really talked about this with anybody and certainly not Jeremy since he would just tell me that I was wrong and try to comfort me when really no words could help me.    


“Oh baby, I’m sure that’s not why he picked you. You know what come here.” He helped me up out of bed and dragged me to the full length mirror that was in the corner of my room next to my desk and where my computer should be.    


“What are we doing?” I asked my boyfriend who just pressed a finger to my lips before turning on the light that I turned off just in case he didn’t want to have it on this early in the morning.    


“I am going to do a little exercise with you. I want for you to look in that mirror and tell me exactly what you see.” He crossed his arms against his chest and I looked at myself in the mirror.    


“I see a shy, awkward, nerdy girl who watches way too many hours of cartoons in her life that is humanly necessary. I’m too skinny and should have some form of meat on my bones and I’m also too short. My eyes are bland and I wish that I had my dad’s honey colored ones just for the sheer fact that they’re different than just your ordinary blue. It used to be such a unique color but now all I see everywhere is blue eyed people.” I was honest and my boyfriend just shook his head at me wrapping his arms around my waist and pulling me back against him.    


“Your all backwards baby, let me show you what I see. I love your hair, it’s so silky, smooth and soft to the touch while having these beautiful waves. On the contrary I think that your eyes are the most beautiful shade of blue that I have ever seen because they sparkle when you get happy and excited about something. Your body is a work in progress and we’re trying to get you to eat more and so far it’s been a success. Have you been keeping track like Jeremy recommended?” I nodded my head showing him my notebook where I had written down what I had eaten during the day and what my weight was on the scale.    


“There you go sweetie your doing great things already and making progress. I don’t think that you’re awkward at all in fact just the opposite. When you noticed that I was geeky like you we just started talking there has never been an awkward lull since I met you. I don’t think that you’re too short in fact I love your height because I can rest my chin on your head. I love that you adore cartoons and are as open about it as you are. The fact that you can just quote Rick & Morty off the top of head or Invader Zim is one of the most adorable things that I have ever seen.” I have never felt more loved by somebody in my entire life and I knew that I had to do the same thing for Elliot since he was deflecting his own problems. He turned the light back off and Belle looked up at me before getting back into her original position curled underneath my arm.    


“You are so beautiful Elliot. I know that you think that you were born into the wrong body and maybe you were but you are still the most beautiful thing in the entire world to me. The way that you style your hair after Danny Phantom is something that I find both intriguing and adorably unique even if the creator denied him being trans. I love the way that your voice will sometimes revert back to its original ways especially when you laugh too hard. I love the way that you can look at things in such a unique and different way. You made me a better person by opening my eyes to your world and the idea that you couldn’t always be happy it’s not possible. This time of suffering will pass and I will be right there by your side to help your through it. I’m so sorry that I have to leave again. I really don’t want to and I’m going to miss you like crazy.” Elliot just leaned against me nuzzling his cheek with mine before kissing me gently but with all the love that he held in his heart. 

“You really think that I’m beautiful?” I nodded my head and he sighed resting his head against the left side of my chest since Belle was on my right arm and he didn’t want to disturb her and I ruffled her ears gently.   


“Of course I do!! I think that you’re by far the most beautiful boy that I’ve ever seen in my entire life. Jeremy is more handsome than he is beautiful but you’re more the type that I dreamed up when I was a little girl and asked to describe my perfect boy. I always wanted with dark hair and light eyes I blame Howl’s Moving Castle.” Elliot just laughed at me making himself comfortable with the covers half strewn down his hips.    


“I always wanted to be seen as a boy even when I was still a girl. I felt uncomfortable in skirts and dresses and hated wearing heels more than anything in the world. I think I was around the age of eight when I asked my best friend at the time Kala if she ever wanted to be the other gender and she shut me out. That was the girlfriend that I had at the time she abandoned me because she didn’t understand what I meant. Instead of being there for me she decided that it was easier to get away from me.” I listened to my boyfriend and my heart instantly broke for the younger version of himself.    


“I can’t say that I know exactly how that betrayal feels but I do have a similar story that involves Katie of course. I trusted her and used her as my confidant when I told her that I thought I was asexual but you know what she did? She laughed at me then proceeded to tell the entire school and they mocked me since I felt so different and out of my own body.” Elliot kissed my cheek encouragingly not discrediting the amount of pan that I had been through during my time of pain.    


“What did you do?” He asked me wanting me to continue my story and I sighed deeply.    


“I got into a fight with her and her lackeys it was my senior year of high school and I was thirteen. She was in her freshman year and I just lost my temper that I usually kept so in check. It was the one and only time that I had ever felt that sort of rage bubbling up inside of me. People teased me for the rest of the year and usually I don’t mind the teasing jabs but these were different this was discrimination because I wasn’t interested in sex and I’m still not really that engaged in it. I’ve never tried it obviously since this is my first relationship. That fight caused me to lose my shot at being valedictorian. ” Elliot listened to my story and I could tell that he was nearly seething with anger.    


“I can’t believe that she had the gall to go and do that to you. You worked your ass off and should have been credited for that work instead of being ridiculed and mocked due to something that isn’t even your fault. I think that you would have made the best valedictorian.” I took my phone that was sitting on my nightstand to my left and pulled it open for my boyfriend showing her the image of me wearing my robes in college at the front of the podiem.    


“I got the opportunity to do it in college though and it was one that I won’t forget anytime soon. Standing in front of all those people even though I was so much younger than most of them but still having the capability of being praised meant more to me than anything else. Want to see my cap?” I asked him and he nodded taking my phone and flipping through the pictures before finding the cap that I had made themed to Up my favorite Pixar movie that said onto my next big adventure.    


“Awww I’ll bet that you were really great up there you know? I mostly tune those people out because they aren’t really that outstanding but you were one of the amazing people.” I smiled at my boyfriend as he just squeezed my hand supportively.    


“I think that my dad has the video of that on his phone so I can’t really help you out there. I somehow didn’t quote any cartoons during that entire speech I was probably too nervous. Looking back on that now I don’t think I’ve gone more than ten minutes without talking about cartoons.” Elliot just  laughed at me and looked towards my sketchbook.    


"Are there any other creative people that you want to meet in your future?” He asked me and I hummed in thought since there were two more that I really wanted to now that I’m older just so I could thank them for pretty much making me laugh through college.    


“Well there’s of course Phil Lamarr he played Wilt in Foster’s Home and Jack in Samurai Jack an absolute icon in the animation business. There’s also Craig McCracken who made Powerpuff Girls and Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends he made my childhood possible through the art of pen and paper. Lauren Faust his wife who created the newer My Little Pony that I was really into when I reached high school, Fluttershy is my girl. I guess if I had to have two more it would probably be Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon the creators of Rick & Morty. They changed my life one vulgar joke at a time and I wouldn’t be the same without its influence.” Elliot smiled at me kissing me gently as he carded his hands through my hair.    


“I can totally see a you in high school drawing ponies during your lunch break while Jeremy teased you for drawing it. I’d kill to meet Justin and Dan though they changed my entire perspective of my own life and helped me come into my own there too. I thought that it was the most perfect show and it still to this day is my favorite show hopefully that won’t change anytime soon. I love it’s told through massive drug trips, foul language but at the same time the heart that’s there moved me to tears multiple times and I’m not easy to break.” I admired Elliot so much he was the strongest person that I had ever met in my entire life.    


“You know, that’s one of the few shows that I would love to be a part of. I can’t wait to see what they do with the next seventy episodes and if we ever get to see Rick’s backstory of how he met Beth’s mother. I don’t know, I just want to see more of his reactions to things since he’s such a lovable asshole. He reminds me so much of my dad but at the same time uberly personified and highly concentrated. The traits are there and maybe that’s why he got so into the show, he has a soft spot for science fiction. It’s one of the reasons why his favorite of all the long running shows is Dr. Who his favorite is Nine.” Elliot listened to me as I gushed about the future episodes of my favorite airing cartoon currently other than Rise.    


“ I don’t really know I like the mystery around his character somewhat though I am curious where the pansexuality came from. Maybe that could be explained, like his wife started out his boyfriend but went through a gender change?” I listened to my boyfriend as I made grabby hands for my sketchbook and he just laughed at me as Belle started to fall asleep on my arm.    


“I take it that you just got an inspiration at four thirty in the morning? What time do you and Viki have to leave today?” He asked me handing me my sketchbook and pencils that were over there and I took my favorite mechanical one starting to draw a boy with very feminine features such as longer eyelashes and a bit more of an interest in fashion than anything else.    


“I have to leave in around three hours on the airplane. It’s going to be fun thankfully I don’t have the audition until tomorrow I’m glad that I stayed awake with you. You kind of did just give me a bit of a crazy idea I just had to sketch it out in the style of the show. He’d have to have blonde hair because Beth’s hair had to come from somebody and I feel like in his younger years Rick had brown hair.” Elliot leaned against my back as I started to draw him in female form with longer blonde hair and a pregnant belly. I had this feeling that they would have some sort of tragic backstory but I just needed to scratch my brain and figure out what.    


“Well he wouldn’t want to marry somebody that was stupid I can tell you that right now so making him a fashion designer isn’t really that realistic.  Maybe someone interested in science?” I nodded my head because Elliot was onto something with his idea but it just needed to be sparked.    


“What about a person interested in being an astronaut?” I asked him and he nodded his head enthusiastically which made me change my decision and made him instead more of a feminine looking boy with a space themed shirt on and leggings with a skirt over them.    


“That’s more like it, you know I can see a younger Rick loving the hell out of her. Maybe that’s why he doesn’t believe in love anymore and sees weddings as just funerals with cake? She cheated on him?” I shook my head because I didn’t want to pull that cheap shot but I continued to think for a moment.    


“This is going to require maximum thinking for a moment. I love this show and I need to think about the proper character dynamics for her and him to have. I really love the idea of her being obsessed with space and wanting to travel there one day. I think that he would love Rick no matter what and that cheating would be a cheap shot. I might to need to think about this when I get more sleep. Do you have any other ideas?” I asked my boyfriend so I could get his opinion since this was technically his idea to make him.    


“I’m sorry I don’t it’s kind of pointless to go back to sleep now isn’t it? Hang on let me get my own computer so we can look at binders.” He told me rolling out of bed as he logged onto his laptop and typed in trans binders. He looked at a lot of the options before landing on one of them it was a strapless one and a dark black one at that.    


“I like the looks of this one, I can still wear tank tops and things during the summer and people won’t know about it.” I nodded my head yawning openly but trying my hardest to mask it through my hand since I didn’t want him to know just how tired I was. 

“Yeah that one looks great Elliot, it suits you perfectly. I think I’ve got something though, she was an astronaut interested in parallel universes but got sucked straight through a black hole obliterating her spaceship and her along with it. I love the idea of a woman who’s smart to put Rick in his place more often than not. She’d have a take no for an answer attitude and be a naturally strong woman. And not the type where they say that she’s strong and then have her do absolutely nothing I hate that trope. She would be intellectual, snarky, but still loving and caring, I’m just trying not to make her into a cliche.” Elliot moved so that he could put his arms around my waist looking at my drawing.    


“ It looks amazing baby, you’re doing great things with this idea. I love it she sounds perfect, I think that the show would need a strong minded woman to put an end to everybody’s bullshit on the show especially her husbands. Like she would push him to get sober and turn off the alcohol but when she died it just went back to square one with his problems.” I started to make the little footnotes off to the side so that I could list them all off and I wouldn’t forget any ideas that I currently was having.    


“That’s a good idea there I’ll write that down. She would be the reason that he did everything even his future career wanting to take Morty dimension hopping in her place. I really love this idea for some reason it’s a really good one. I don’t think that I could ever voice her though. I might animate her though.” Elliot kissed the side of my neck that he was facing gently.    


“What makes you think that you can’t voice her?” He asked me and I sighed looking down at the drawing that I was making.    


“Because I’m not talented enough to do it. I should have more experience or something I don't know. I would love to voice her but there would be so much pressure on my shoulders.” Elliot gently took my sketchbook away from me moving so that he could tangle his legs with mine.    


“I think that you’re plenty talented to pull it off just by using that emotion and putting yourself in the characters shoes. You have this incredible imagination baby and I think that this would be the perfect character to put that ideal to use. This fanbase is so accepting of everything if you’re worried about him being a trans woman than don’t. It’ll be great you just have to talk to them and tell them your idea right? Does Rob know them?” I nodded my head leaning it back against the pillows.    


“Yeah he does know them, he had them on for an episode of Talkin’ Toons while I was away studying my ass off at school. I wish I could’ve been there to see it all happen I’ve missed so many great ones over the years because I decided that going to MIT was a good idea.” Elliot snuggled against my side and I smiled to myself when I realized just how perfectly we fit together. 

“Then you already have your foot through the doors maybe they’ll come to your party on Monday. You’ll be back by then right?” I nodded my head smiling as Belle started to fall asleep on my arm.    


“I’ll leave right after I met up with Michael and Bevins tomorrow morning he wanted to meet me before thinking about casting me as Shiraise in A Place Further Than The Universe.” These were the moments that I lived for when I was so comfortable with my boyfriend.    


“You would be so good in that show, one of my old friends back in Colorado recommended that I watched it and she was my favorite character. Do you know who else is coming to your party?” Belle snuggled deeper into my arm in her sleep and I knew that I would miss her while I was away even if it was hardly even for a day and a half.    


“As far as I know Tom, Doug and Rob obviously since he’s putting this whole thing together and Stephen said that he would try his best but I don’t really know what that means anymore. JJ said that he would try to bring Jhonen but he also said that he might have a meeting but had a present for me anyways. DiMaggio is definitely coming so you’ll get to meet him he’s great. Greg is bringing Ethan and Steven so you’ll finally get to meet them and as far as I know that’s everyone but like I said I hardly know who’s coming since Rob has his hands on the reigns here. Wouldn’t it be funny if he invited Justin and Dan without even telling me? That sounds like something that he would pull over on me. I’m pretty much just trying to keep an open mind here just because anything can happen since usually my dad and I work together on the theming. You never really know what they could be planning when it’s out of your hands. I think the guys from Rise are coming too at least Josh and Ben since they promised they would.” I listed off the people who told me that they were coming as I started to hear a light commotion outside my door and I knew that the others were awake at six in the morning. 

“It’s time to face the real world, will you be alright? Maybe you could sleep on the plane.” Elliot told me as Belle was startled awake due to the sounds of Viki’s laughter coming from outside.    


“I’ll be fine I’m taking Abby Cadabby with me anyways to keep my nightmares away. It’s funny you know? With Belle and you here I hardly ever have nightmares anymore I like to think that she just barks in her cute little way scaring them off.” Elliot stretched his arms up above his head popping his knuckles on the way down.    


“ Can I ask you something? What made you choose the name Elliot?” My boyfriend just sat at the base of my bed and glanced over at me with a sad smile on his face.    


“It’s not really anything special really, kind of a sad story if I’m being honest. My first boyfriend that I had back in middle school the firebender, his name was Elliot. We spent a lot of time together with Kala and eventually started dating as a triad it was really different from our relationship though. I loved Elliot, he was my first love when I wasn’t really sure what it was. We dated even when Kala abandoned me and he helped me transition into the person that I am today. He got cancer when we were twelve and he also past away last year a month before I left Colorado behind me so I could try to get over him. It’s why I promised myself that this wouldn’t happen again the whole polyamorous relationship.” Elliot told me his backstory of why he had chosen the name that he did and it warmed my heart but also brought tears to my eyes.    


“I can’t believe that you’ve been through so much, you had to watch the boy that you loved be buried when you weren't ready for him to leave you yet. He meant a lot to you and I’m so sorry that you lost him so you. I’m so proud of you Elliot you’re moving forward and I could’ve never done that in your shoes. Hell my dad is gone and it took me a few weeks to even really stop focusing on that. How strong you’ve had to be and yet still managed to give me and Jeremy a chance is alarming.” I held my boyfriend even when his tears soaked through my shirt again but I knew that he had to be strong for only himself and I would carry enough of that weight to make him feel lighter.   


“I don’t see how you’re so good to me but I’ll just enjoy you as much as I can for as long as you stay by my side.” I kissed him gently as he helped me up off my bed and we both walked hand in hand to the kitchen seeing Mimi and Viki with surprisingly Jeremy at the bar counter.    


“What are you doing here Jere-bear? Isn’t a little bit early for you to roll yourself out of bed?” I joked and he just rolled his eyes at me hugging me and Elliot in a crushing group hug giving both of us kisses.    


“ Har har, I’ll have you know that I got a text from Mimi around an hour ago saying that you two have been up since three thirty and woke them up.” I rubbed the back of my neck awkwardly because maybe I had been singing a bit too loudly.    


“It wasn’t the worst way to wake up, you sing so beautifully I wish that you had the opportunity to do it more often. Besides it was Goodbye Moonmen and who can complain about hearing that?” I laughed at just how easy Viki was in terms of her favorite show as I sat in between both of my boyfriends.    


“ Goodbye what?” I knew that my boyfriend had never even heard of the show since he was obsessed with Futurama and that was about it but Viki gasped in her typical way before running off to her room to probably get her copy of the box set of dvds to loan to him while we were away.    


“Viki got Abby really into this cartoon that’s on adult swim called Rick & Morty it’s basically if Back To The Future was on drugs and with a ton more foul language thrown in and amazing writing. I pretend to hate it because I prefer Futurama but it’s really good if you’re into space and time travel. Abby is basically Rick on very little sleep except instead of being drunk she’s sleep deprived.” I threw a mock glare at my best friend for ratting me out about that embarrassing little tidbit of my life. 

“I even got my dad into it while I was on winter break and watching the Moonmen episode. It’s my favorite song from the show because I can just close my eyes and pretend that I’m traveling through space just like my favorite asshole grandpa who still cares about his family and his naive son who just wants to live his life in peace.” I saw Viki come back bearing her videos that basically went everywhere with her even though I only paid five dollars a month for it on Hulu where I could rewatch every one of my favorite episodes basically all of them since it was nearly impossible for me to pick one of them.    


“There you go friendo I will give you these and hope that you are finished with them within the next couple of days while I’m away and I get this back. I am trusting you with my favorite show and I hope that you’ll think it’s absolutely insane.” I laughed at my good friend for being such an over exaggerated person as Mimi gave me my peach and strawberry mango smoothie.    


“Alright thanks Viki I really appreciate it, I’m sure that I’ll treasure it. Hey Elliot want to binge watch it with me?” Jeremy asked our boyfriend who was on my right side and he smiled brightly. 

“Hells yeah, that’s one of my favorite modern day cartoons with it’s incredible humor. It’s so funny and has really great characters. I will fight anybody who disses it and just calls it vulgar and stupid. They’re just too dumb to understand it. My first boyfriend was the one to show it to me, I took my boy name from him.” I smiled at my boyfriend who was bound to have an incredible weekend with our special show that spoke to me specifically.    


“You’ll have a great time with it Jeremy, it’s brilliantly told and I’m just biased with my favorite modern show. I grew to love it no matter what and it spoke to me with Bender’s batshit insane antics and sense of humor.” Mimi had loved Futurama since I had shown it to her when we started watching Rick & Morty.    


“It means the world to me and the science talk is one of the most interesting and still good enough that we can understand it.” I smiled at the memory of watching the episodes for the first time with my two best friends on our couch at the dorms until we bought our own apartment pooling together all the money for rent every month.    


“Abby so I have a question, what was the best day of your life?” I thought about this this question weighing at least my top five before picking my top option.    


“So I was sixteen in my last full year at MIT when I was back here for summer vacation when my piano teacher came to me with this option that she was giving to her students about giving a two hour presentation to her and then the best one out of all of them would take that show to New York and play in the Broadhurst theater. So the idea was we all had to pick one famous person who worked in the music business and do a two hour presentation of their best music and their history with their life story. I thought for a long time about what my favorite writer and song maker was before it just came to me one day, he’s a man that’s forgotten by the modern day populace. Who do you think I picked judging by my personality?” I asked Elliot and he thought for a moment while I sipped my smoothie and my three best friends instantly knew what day I was talking about.    


“I actually do have one idea and my guess is Elton John?” I made the wrong buzzer sound with my mouth and shook my head.    


“Nope I figured that he would be too popular I went really underground with this one. He worked in musical theater and wrote one of my all time favorite shows that’s been on my bucket list and I was actually in it when I was in college because I had to do it and it was my last year at the community theater near school. I did my presentation on Howard Ashman and my teacher ended up absolutely loving it. I won the contest and the ceremony and scheduled date that I had to be there was the day after graduation. I put together all my favorite songs of his and did this small little autobiography about him too even if there isn’t much known about him at that time Lilith was still sure that I would do greatly at it. So I went through all this stuff in the past such as God bless you Mr. Rosewater and Little Shop Of Horrors. This is more like the biggest moment of my life thus far and the biggest surprise to me I stood up and was about to introduce the next song and I see out of the corner of my eye Alan Menken moving out onto the stage. We did one of my favorite songs with the rest of the band and it was this song called Mean Green Mother From Outer Space which is Audrey II’s villain song. It’s this sort of jazz song and I used to love it when I was growing up because it’s one of the few parts of the movie that I wished was in the show. So I’m freaking out and so is the audience and the rest of the band and he just sits at my piano that I had just finished playing at a minute ago and I’m thinking in the back of my mind he’s playing the piano I was just at. Doing that song with him at the piano was the greatest moment of my life thus far and getting to perform one of my favorite villain songs while doing little dance moves because it’s impossible for me not to since I did it in my dance class of course it was a censored version for finals.” Viki pulled out her phone showing Elliot the moment that I was talking about and his eyes widened the moment that he heard my voice since I was really getting into it and even changed my voice to make it sound more intimidating.    


“I can’t believe that you were able to do that song with a straight face like you were completely expecting him to show up. That dress is so beautiful on you.” I laughed because the entire time I was telling myself not to freak out or to start crying just act like you knew he was coming this entire time.    


“She was telling herself to keep her cool and then during the halftime break she started crying and Jeremy had to hug her to get her to stop. Lilith had invited him apparently their old friends and she wanted to do something for Abby to help celebrate her graduation. I’ve never seen her happier than that moment it was just like that she was wholly herself in front of thousands of men in suits. Look at her little foot routine!!” Viki told him and I saw my foot go from right to left so clearly just wanting to spazz out and start tap dancing. It was one of those moments that now I looked back on it that was one of the things that helped shape me into who I am today.

“She was so good up there not just during that segment but that entire night. We were all so proud of her but this song actually got those stuffty men in suits out of their seats and clapping for her. After that Alan just asks her what her favorite song is and just she tells him that it’s Be Our Guest so he starts telling the story of how it was made from his perspective. He sat at the piano and played all the other songs and it was the most amazing thing getting to see his side of the story too.” Mimi told him and Jeremy smiled at the pictures that I basically begged him for when he ate dinner with us after our performance. 

“We got to eat dinner with him after the show it was great to get the chance to ask him questions. He was the nicest mainstream celebrity that we had ever met and trust me when I say that we’ve met some assholes too that was not fun. He was the kindest man that I have ever met in my entire life and he really changed the way that Abby thought about her own life.” Jeremy smiled at the images that were passing across the screen that he was seeing. It made me so happy to look at these various images that were passing me by since it was my own life. Mimi gave me the pancakes that she had made along with the fruit in replace of the bacon since it seemed that she went shopping yesterday when we got back from Venice beach.    


“It’s something that changed the way that I think about my personal life. I love Alan he’s one of the most incredible people that changed my life. He showed me how to be myself and how to learn to play with my heart.” I smiled at my old friends who had done so much for me before we started to eat breakfast and I had to get going to the small airport where me and Viki could get things done and then just come back home since I really didn’t want to be gone for too long.    


“What was your favorite part of that show that you two did together?” Elliot asked me as I got changed sitting outside my bathroom when I brushed out my bedhead.    


“I think my favorite part of it was when he joined me in doing Suddenly Seymour from Little Shop Of Horrors. He told me afterwards that I would have the perfect voice for Audrey. Little did he know after that show I tried out for the community theater’s version of Little Shop. My dad even came out for the show he said that it was my best performance. I was the only one to get a standing ovation at the end of the show.” I smiled to myself as I put on my favorite little skirt with the shirt that Rob had gotten for me with Yakko front and center on it and I put the sweatshirt that Jeremy had given to me. I zipped it up and put it over my head seeing the things that were on top of his head just feeling like I could conquer the world.    


“I AM HERE!! I kicked through the door startling my boyfriend as he just laughed at my antics he kissed me gently before I got into the car with Viki already waiting. 

“Have a great time there okay? Come home to me and we’ll have a great birthday party.” I nodded my head at her sitting down in my drivers seat and I waved to my boyfriends smiling sadly as I didn’t want to leave him behind.    


“You’ll come back in just a couple of days honey. I know it’s so hard to have to leave them behind. I hate having to do that with Mimi every summer when we have to go home. If it means anything I think that you did a great job with your picks choosing both of them over other options.” Viki was always the person that would talk to me and comfort me if I needed it since we had far more in common than I did with Mimi.    


“I really do love them honestly and truly. I know how crazy that sounds since I’ve only known Elliot for around a month but I see this boy that I want to be with for as long as he’ll take me. He’s been through so much and I just want to give him these small moments of bliss and happiness with laughter.” I mentioned to my best friend as she just smiled softly at me.    


“I can tell that he’s been going through hell in a handbasket these past few days but you were there for him and I love that about you. Once you declare somebody’s close to you you’ll fight for them to stay by your side not even caring if you get hurt in the process. It’s not the easiest thing to have to deal with but I’m proud of you for allowing yourself to be happy with your boyfriends. I know your anxiety hell I have it myself so by default that means I get it. It’s not fun to deal with and you’re such a strong person to have to deal with it everyday of your life.” Viki had really bad anxiety due to not having the best parents in the entire world but she made them work. 

“I think that your way stronger than I’ll ever be Viks but thanks for thinking that I’m strong I think? Are you excited to get to finally see the studios that we’ve both dreamed about seeing since we met in college five years ago?” She nodded her head excitedly at me and I could tell by the smile on her face she really was as she typed on my phone to get into my music playlist picking the space themed one and I heard David Bowie start to pour from my speakers.    


“I thought that you were going to pick my animated film one and we were going to have a ridiculous sing off of who can sing the Captain Underpants song louder.” I joked and she just threw her head back laughing at me since we had created that playlist as a joke since Mimi hated how we would go around singing that song for months after the movie came out since she shared my Weird Al problem. 

“I’m not in the mood to be silly actually right now maybe on the way home. To be honest I thought that Happy would be driving us to the Stark Airport.” I sighed slightly knowing that she would be worried about me when I told her.    


“I’ve technically let him and Pepper both go temporarily because I don’t really need them. Sure they still stop by the house but it’s mostly just to make sure that I’m still alive. They don’t really have jobs right now even though Pepper got promoted to work with Obadiah until my dad’s situation either gets a hard he’s dead conclusion or he comes back to me.” I told her honestly and she looked at me her piercing green eyes trying to understand the motives of what I had done flipping her strawberry blonde hair out of her eyes.    


“Why would you do that? They work for both you and your father so you should have kept them around if you were really that lonely.” She took off her shoes putting her feet across the middle seat next to her that usually Elliot would take since he was small enough to fit in between me and Jeremy if he didn’t want to be apart from us.    


“I did it because there was this constant awkward silence that I had to deal with. I’m not good with people Vik you know this. Even the ones that I’ve been around my entire life there was this awkward tension there that I had to tell them that they should just go home and I would give them paid leave until we hear more news about his whereabouts. I miss him so much Viki I really don’t know what to do with myself. I’m so lonely and I hate being home maybe that’s why I agreed to do all these trips all the sudden because I can’t deal with being alone in my own house. I’m so used to hearing the incessant drilling that never shuts up even at nighttime so I have use over the ear headphones and white noise in order to get any sleep at night.” I had to be honest with her because she was was one of those people that could read me like an open book.    


“Oh you poor baby, I can’t imagine what you’re going through. It hurts to see you acting like this because I know it’s not you. Pepper and Happy are fine with you being awkward not that I’m saying you are it’s just Katie ruined you. You’ve got these walls up to only keep me, your dad, your uncle, Jeremy, Elliot me and Mimi inside of it because we’re the only ones that haven’t betrayed you yet. It’s no way to live your life and I can’t boss you around or tell you what to do but I want to keep you from being hurt that’s my job. You just don’t pay me which is too bad because I can see the checks for that getting pretty high at this rate.” She mocked and I knew that she was just joking around with me as I laughed at her.    


“Fine what will you accept hugs or cuddles?” I asked her jokingly as we fell into our typical banter since we were both really tactile people to which most people thought that the two of us were in a relationship instead of her and Mimi. Which would be sick and wrong if you were asking me considering the age gap between the two of us being around five years even if it wasn’t that bad it was enough for me. 

“I’m just glad that you’re still able to smile and speak from your heart those are two of my favorite qualities about you. I can’t believe that bright eyed girl who showed up at our dormitory with nervous eyes became the very thing that I always knew she would be a voice actress. You’re going to be a fucking ninja turtle!! How cool is that?!” I laughed at my best friend because she knew just how much I would talk about cartoons with our small group of friends whenever they offered me to just let off some venting steam.    


“I know right?! Like I’m freaking out right now because I’m about to go down to Texas and try out for my dream company. I mostly got here thanks to my friends in the business which isn’t a bad thing I know that my talent also had a pretty big hand in it too.” Viki used to tell me that I could do anything that I wanted to back when I first started to attend classes and I missed my dad so much that I almost booked a flight home and even started thinking about applying to Pepperdine university out here so that I could live at home.    


“I knew that you were going to do great things one of these days since you are so bright. You’re the sister that I never knew I needed to have in my life. When I saw you walking through the corridors trying to find our dorm room I knew that we were going to be fast friends. You have a rare gift that consists of actually giving a damn about the people in your life. Maybe too much of a damn. You would facetime Jeremy even though you had your own homework you would still help him with biology so that he could pass and stay ahead and still do sports.” My first year was the one that I actually went easy on myself trying to get adjusted to my courses so I only took four classes per quarter there. Yes that was a small amount considering my last quarter I took seven classes almost with no breaks and some of them even late at night. I was pretty much running on fumes during our finals week even though I got great grades on all of them with my eyes closed I still studied my ass off to at least seem somewhat normal.    


“I’m still surprised that I survived with the amount of workload that I was handling over there at MIT. It was crazy but somehow I did it and graduated when most people are just thinking about the end of high school. And with a doctorate at that most normal people probably couldn’t have gotten that in just five years. It helped that I was a pro at managing my time even when my class load was crazy and that my professors were all willing to work with me too.” Being smart wasn’t everything even I knew that but without my brains I wouldn’t have made it that far. I owed a lot to my intelligence since it not only got me out of college but it helps me understand the world around me.    


“I can’t believe that you took seven classes your last quarter it’s insane. We had to drag you out of your room sometimes to just spend dinnertime with us and enjoy some leisure television. The only quarter that you took a normal amount of classes for half time was three last year when you were doing Little Shop. I took four classes all these semesters and it’s crazy the amount of work I’ve got to do still to this day. College is hard and it’s amazing you got to graduate as fast as you did. Did you graduate younger than your father?” She asked me as I turned off the freeway and onto the regular road seeing the parking in front of me and the plane in parked position about four miles in front of me.    


“He graduated when he was nineteen so to answer that question I graduated younger than him and I had a higher degree than he did. Mostly because while I was there all I did was focus on school while he went to parties and lived the frat boy life. That was never really my style it makes me wonder if it were without me would he have drunk himself into a stupor?” Viki turned to me squeezing my hand that was on the steering wheel. 

“Honey he’s okay, he’s going to come back to you and when he does you can punch him in the face for ever leaving you behind in the first place. I know that you’re worried about him and so am I but you have to believe that he’ll come home to you. He loves you so much and would do just about anything for you. How old was he when he adopted you?” I smiled softly to myself pushing a lock of hair behind my ear.    


“He was twenty four so that would make him in his early forties even if he won’t admit it to himself. He just acts like a massive child, he used to text me riggity riggity wrecked when I had too much homework to FaceTime him but we eventually found a schedule that worked so that I could figure out how to talk to him everyday.” Viki leaned her her head back against my seat and I began to drive up the runway.    


“That’s right I remember you would work so hard that a lot of the time we had to drag you away from the textbooks and you missed your dad so that’s why you buried yourself in studying. I thought that it was sweet that you wanted to get home so you could bother him when he’s trying to work in his garage.” She grabbed her bags as I took my own that were on the bottom of the backseat and I parked my car in the space where my dad usually parked his audi. Viki walked up the ramp and I grabbed my small over the shoulder bag that I would put above the compartment. I hoped that Keaton was our pilot again because that was the best flight I had ever been on and the only one that hadn’t gotten me motion sick.    


“Is over here good?” Viki asked me and she gestured to a booth next to the front of the plane and I nodded my head flipping open the top compartment and putting my bag up there by standing on my tiptoes and reaching really high. Sometimes I cursed my height but on the upside I liked to think of myself as an Irkan so it didn’t really matter anyways. I grabbed Abby from my backpack before sliding into the comfortable booth next to my best friend as Keaton appeared from the front of the plane.    


“Good morning miss Stark, it’s a pleasure to fly with you again. Off to Flower Mound Texas? What’s down there?” Keaton asked and I smiled at my new friend taking out my sketchbook.    


“I have an audition down there at Funimation studios thanks to a good friend of mine who should be meeting us at the airport down there. I hope so anyways he told me that he would be there. It’s only a short trip down there and back tomorrow afternoon because my birthday is on Monday and according to Rob this needs to be a huge deal.” Viki smiled at me nudging my shoulder happily as I bet the side of her that loved anime couldn’t wait until she met her idol.    


“I can’t wait to meet Michael Tatum!! I still can’t believe that you two met and you never even told me. I’m Viki we went to college together and I was her roommate with my girlfriend Mimi.” She introduced herself to Keaton and he smiled at both of us.    


“Very good, you’re lucky that we have a landing bay in just about every city thanks to Mr. Stark having to travel everywhere and that’s one of the cities that we have one. Usually it would be only major cities but this one is different. He actually had this one built for you incase your dream ever became a reality and you became a voice actress down there. He wanted for you to have a way for you to be able to go from Malibu to Flower Mound easier.” I smiled at Keaton as he leaned back against the archway.    


“I was surprised that there was one even down there when Michael told me last night that they had just finished building one all the way out there. I was  expecting for their to be only one in Austin and we would have to take the bus or call an Uber for three hours.” I joked and Viki just laughed at me for me being worried about almost literally nothing.    


“She worries about everything sometimes she just needs to chill the hell out. This is one of those moments. I just wonder what I’m going to do down there because I don’t want to get in your way.” She told me and Keaton smiled at me while moving back to his cockpit to check his schedule.    


“It should take us about two hours to get there and the weather looks good so maybe it’ll only take us about an hour and a half. Thankfully you’re not going somewhere with snow again I’ll bet that was fun.” He laughed at me and I smiled at the man who was arguably the best pilot that my father ever had. 

“It actually was pretty great, my boyfriends definitely had fun with a major snowball fight until I slipped on ice. It was great though, I’ll always love traveling to New York it’s my second home since I’ve been there so many times on business with my dad. I’m sorry I’m probably bothering you, it’s just you’re the best pilot that I’ve ever been with since I tend to get really anxious when I step onto an airplane but you were really good with flying it.” I told him and he just grinned at me infectiously with a bright smile.    


“It’s no big deal Abby I’m just doing my job and I’m glad that you think I’m good at it.” He went back up the cockpit and I smiled to myself as Viki  looked at me trying to breach a certain topic it looked like but not knowing how I would react to it as the plane took off the ground.    


“So… how’s Stephen Hillenburg doing?” I should’ve known that was the question she wanted to ask since Viki is never really that nervous about asking me anything.   


“It’s not looking that great a few days ago he facetimed me while I was in New York and told me that he wanted to go over to Tom’s so he could watch the Sesame Street episode with Tom and Doug but he couldn’t get out of bed. I’m really worried about him Vik he’s my friend and I love him like he’s my uncle no matter what. It hurts me to think that sooner rather than later he’s going to leave me and this world behind.” Viki put his arm around my shoulders and knew how to be comfortable with me since she had seen me during my final exams week. 

“It’s so hard having to say goodbye to somebody that had an impact on you like that. You might have to face the facts that he’s not going to last much longer. I know that you admire him above all else and that he changed your life by taking you by the hand and showing you that being eccentric was okay. I’m surprised that wasn’t the best day of your life meeting those voice actors.” Viki had been through pain just like I had because during my junior year of college her grandmother passed away and she had to go on leave for an entire quarter because she was so upset about it. Her grandmother was the only family member to treat her with basic common decency. 

“I know you and Elliot know how I feel but that doesn’t make this any easier for me. It’s so hard to deal with this shit because I don’t want to say goodbye to him yet. I’m not ready and I don’t think any amount of preparing is going to get me ready for it. He’s more than just the man who created one of my favorite cartoons, he’s family to me at this point. I can’t do anything to help him, all the money in the world and I can’t help him at all.” I felt tears come to my eyes and Viki just rubbed small circles into my side.    


“It’s going to be okay honey, I know that you’re upset about it and everything but I’ve been where you are. I understand more than most people would but you know who else does even if he doesn’t like talking about it? Elliot understands what that feels like to see the person that you love and admire slowly slip away into nothingness. I say that even though he’s basically bedridden at this rate that you still pay him visits and talk with him. It might be hard at first but the one thing that I regret with my grannie is that I never really got that closure with her. You have that opportunity to say goodbye to him.” Viki explained to me and I could see that this was hard for her to talk about with me since we both didn’t handle death very well. I’ll never forget when Bowie died we both were in a deep depression for a long time after that even though we both knew it was only a matter of time. Robin Williams had the same affect on me even though I never had the pleasure of meeting him he was still my favorite actor for the longest time before Edward Norton came into my life with his blue eyes and infectious smile. 

“I know I should take the memories that I have with him that are happy and say goodbye to him. I’ll start visiting him at home soon just so I can talk with him one on one. He taught me so much about living the life that I have to the fullest and I’ll always treasure that factor of my life.” I saw thankfully a new stewardess that wasn’t Jennifer come over to me and Viki.    


“Hi, I’m Caroline can I get you both anything?” I moved a lock of hair behind my ear since I was really nervous about this since I had never met her before.    


“I’ll have a ginger ale please.” I told her simply and Viki nodded her holding up two fingers.    


“Make that two please!!” Caroline nodded her head and I could see out of the corner of my eye my best friend take out her laptop.    


“Do you mind if I do some homework? I won’t be able to do it for a little while and I want to turn in my assignments so I won’t have to worry about it.” I nodded my head and she logged onto her computer as I took out my own computer logging into my Hulu account clicking on the Animaniacs since I thought I could just use the funny and witty writing. This show changed the way that I thought about my own sense of humor since it was one of the funniest cartoons known to man. 

“Watching some Yakko Warner?” I nodded my head humming the opening theme as I watched my favorite character bounce around.    


“This is one of my favorite cartoons of all time it made me so happy no matter what. It just makes me laugh no matter what and these characters are so spazy and zany totally insaney…” I loved this show more than anything else except for Teen Titans being my all time favorite.    


“Animaniacs!! Those are the facts. My favorite is Dot fuck you fight me.” I laughed at my best friend as I got my drink and started to watch these amazing characters. 

“Dot is cute and all but Yakko is the most like me aside from the perverted sense of humor even though. He’s a blabbermouth and I can relate to that it’s one of most relatable things for both me and Rob since he’s the same way. If you were to ask him which character he’s most like of all the ones in arsenal this is what he answers with. I’ll always treasure this character since he got me through elementary school with Jeremy who favors Wakko.” I had picked one of my favorite episodes to watch and this was one of the things in my life that made me laugh until there were tears in my eyes.    


“I remember when I first saw you wearing your Animaniacs shirt I wondered where the hell you got it and when you told me that you got it as a gift from Rob Paulsen himself I thought that you were lying to me.” I laughed at Viki since my favorite shirt was technically a gift from Rob on my tenth birthday. It had Yakko doing Nations Of The World and it said above it it might look like I’m listening to you but in my head I’m listening to Yakko’s Nations Of The World and it was in this bright pink color that I wore still all the time.    
“I didn’t want to tell you because I knew that you were just as much a sucker for classic cartoons as I was and was worried that you might hate me.” Viki 

just playfully punched my shoulder with a teasing glint in her eyes.    
“Yeah right we might be almost ten years apart but you’re the best friend that I’ve ever had in my entire life. Your the only one that understood my love for cartoons and animation as a hobby and I felt like I knew you. I wish that we had more time in college to talk but you were always working hard to study and get good grades. The only times that you let us drag you out of your room were when we wanted to go out to the movies.” Whenever a new animated film that we were all interested in seeing came out we would be there taking the afternoon off from studying. It was great and we saw so many incredible films through that method.    


“I love animation it’s one of the best mediums of entertainment and one of those things that just brings a smile to my face. Even if the movie is debatably garbage like some people might think Captain Underpants is I love it because it’s about friendship and creativity at its core. Plus the soundtrack is just outstanding and constantly makes me smile.” I had fallen in love with the books through Jeremy even though they were far below my normal reading level there was just something about them and their stories of friendship. I took both my dad and Jeremy to see it that summer as well for the second time and we all had a blast with it. It was one of the few times that the three of us actually did something together.    


“I know and you love Harold more than life itself. I’ll agree that they are both my pure sweet sons and they made my childhood so much easier. My best friend and I growing up dressed up as Harold and George and I was obviously Harold since he fits my skin tone and personality. I was the sensitive artist and my best friend her name was Elaine was kind of the loud and bombastic person that I followed around. She was crazy and that was the type of person that was my first love as a girl and I knew that I was gay.” I had never really asked how she had figured out that she was queer as I felt the plane dip and I looked out the window seeing the landing bay and put my laptop and Abby into my backpack.    


“I never knew that actually that’s really fascinating Vik, I just thought that it was too personal so I didn’t really want to ask. I’m sorry that ruined your friendship when you told her didn’t it?” She just nodded her head and I knew that she wasn’t finished talking about her backstory yet.    


“Well yeah I mean I came out to her as queer at the worst possible time too. She had just gotten a boyfriend and was disgusted with me being gay and in love with her at the time. Now that I think about it though the signs of her being homophobic were all there she hated the fact that Harold turned out to be gay in that future book that was made when we were kids while I cried because he was my favorite best boy and we had that in common.” I smiled at my best friend because I had all the books still that I collected in one giant binder that I had taken with me everywhere when I was a little girl and I would share them with Jeremy as a kid.    


“I’m sorry that happened but you came out ten times stronger thanks to it and now you have Mimi and you two are perfect for each other. There are so many things about my life that I would never change now that I look back on it and being pan is one of them. My dad is certainly going to be surprised I know that Rob was once I told him when we were at Warner Brothers Studios.” Viki put her things away and helped me up off the booth where I had been sitting and grabbed my bag for me that I had put on the overhead. I put it over my shoulder and saw the car that I recognized as Michael’s seeing him get out of the car with his fianceèe Brandon. I smiled to myself seeing them from outside the plane knowing that I would have to congratulate them both even though technically Michael had already gotten my wishes when I met him at the con in December it was just the pilote thing to do.    


“Ready to do this thing Viki? Don’t tell me that you’re getting cold feet now he’s really a chilled out kind of guy. You were cool when we met Greg right? It’s basically the same thing except we’re not at the beach.” I joked and she just nodded her head stoically as I grabbed my hoodie that I had taken off putting it at least over my shoulders since I did love to show off this shirt. She went in front of me thankfully as I found my way down the plane waving to Keaton who was just staying in a hotel for the night paid for by me so that he could fly us back tomorrow and not have to fly back and forth again. I felt bad that he had to be apart from his daughter but at the same time it was only for one night and he would be back home tomorrow.    


“Hi Michael!!” I waved to him once I got down the ramp and saw him as he hugged me tightly.    


“Hello there Abby, thanks for coming down here on such short notice. I really appreciate it and you’ll do greatly. I love that hoodie, did Jeremy give that to you for luck?” I nodded my head and shoved Viki forward since she was standing rooted to the ground.    


“This is my college roommate and best friend Viktoria Amoz, I offered for her to come with me when she and her girlfriend just about broke down my door two nights ago since I kind of forgot to text them back after everything had happened to me.” I introduced Viki to my good friend as she finally came to and introduced herself. 

“Hi, I’m Viki, sorry I’m a really big fan of your work. She really got me into anime during my years that she stayed with us in college.” I smiled at her as Brandon came forward and I waved to the newcomer.    


“It’s nice to finally meet you, I’m Abigail Stark knowing him though you probably already knew that. Congrats on the engagement by the way.” He just laughed at me and I cocked my head to the side at Viki as if I had said something wrong.    


“I’m sorry, he warned me that you would be adorable and I guess I was just taken off guard anyways. It’s very nice to finally meet you as well and he did talk a lot about you once he got back from that con, I’m Brandon Mcllis.” I wasn’t expecting the hug that I got but let go of my shock quickly enough that I hugged him back.    


“It wasn’t nonstop but it was quite a fair amount, you left a pretty big impression on me. I had never met another person like you before with all your adorable babbling it was like I gained a younger sister.” I laughed at my friend giving him a hug as well before holding up my hand and offering him the same drawing that I tried to give to him during the con but he refused it.    


“Now that you’re finally making through on your promise this is yours. I’m not taking no for answer that was our deal, you get me down here for an audition one day and I give you this sketch. Not really a fair bargain but it’s what happened.” I gave him the drawing and he happily accepted it as I gave a similar one to Brandon so that he wouldn’t feel left out with his characters.    


“Oh this is so cool!! You’re a really fantastic artist, I take it that one’s for Chris? You’re meeting him tomorrow are you nervous? He’s really great no matter what Michael will tell you.” I laughed at Brandon following him to the car as Michael and Viki started talking.    


“Yeah I’m a little bit nervous mostly because I have to impress him in order to get the job I want but I feel like I would be really good in that role of Shiraise since she’s my favorite or I could even love to be Yuzuki that one might be better suited for me personally. I can definitely relate to the constantly traveling since I went with my dad on a lot of his business trips for weeks at a time. I moved really quickly through grades though so it wasn’t that big of a problem. I had a great childhood and made some pretty incredible friends through my years that I’ve kept in touch with.” I mentioned and he smiled at me taking in everything that I was telling him.    


“I can say that we can’t wait for you to start on national television that’s quite the feat. How did you pull it off? I watched the video but I wanted to hear it from you.” Brandon asked me holding open the car door for me as I slid in next to Viki and gave her hand a reassuring squeeze of encouragement that she was doing a great job even though she was nervous.    


“Well I met Rob Paulsen when I was ten and he was all the enthusiasm for the business that I always dreamed the voice of Yakko Warner my childhood favorite cartoon character would be at least in terms of classic cartoons he still is my favorite. He told me that I could be whatever I wanted to be and even though my dad told me the same thing he taught it to me in a different way. I started off with just doing theater work and had the best time being Belle when I was sixteen at college in their production since we had to put on a show at the end of the three months. It was crazy and running around making the cheap looking sets but I had a great time with her character. I was also doing a ton of community theater mostly because I could play any role given to me my favorite one being a toss up between Eva Peron and last year I was Audrey in Little Shop that was basically life goals right there. I’m also an artist and I love to create original characters and Lizzy was one of my first. When Rob got the job as voice acting coach he offered the opportunity to JJ Conway our assistant director who agreed that I should be on the show and now I am. I owe Rob a lot for mostly everything without him I would probably be face down in a ditch somewhere trying to find my way out logically instead of the fun way.” I gave my story as he climbed into the passenger side seat and Michael in the drivers.    


“That’s actually a really sweet story, was Rob your mentor?” I nodded my head pulling out my phone and he scrolled through the multitude of selfies that I had taken with him over the years. 

“He taught me so much about myself and how to let loose and have fun sometimes instead of just working all the time. College doesn’t count because I just wanted to get back home to my family and friends. I missed them so much during those five years when I was just taking classes consistently not having enough time to really call any of them except for Fridays which were deemed movie nights and tv show days since I never took seven day week classes and Friday was always my day off from it all.” I told him and he gave me back my phone after going through that folder that made me smile myself as I went through it. 

“What shows did they force you into watching?” I laughed at Brandon’s question as Viki start to just list them off.    


“Well some of them she encouraged too like Attack On Titan, FullMetal Alchemist Brotherhood and My Hero Academia. But the ones that me and Mimi loved are Supernatural, Doctor Who, Sherlock which is one of her personal favorites though she prefers Who because she has a space problem. She loves space and the galaxy she wanted to do astrophysics but it just didn’t work out for her. We also watched a ton of adult swim cartoons, my favorite one being Rick and Morty.” I nodded my head at the Rick and Morty comment since Michael knew that show was basically my life work.    


“Abby loves that show above most other things on television right now. Isn’t that your favorite show right now currently airing?” I nodded my head enthusiastically at the question since I would probably always be biased towards my favorite cynic and optimist traveling through space and time discovering other planets and parallel universes. 

“Yep it is my favorite show, I’m surprised that you remembered that. I found this little keychain that I bought at the con because I had to that was themed to Rick & Morty that I brought back with me and attached to my backpack right here. I love Supernatural though too even though sometimes it takes an epic nosedive and starts to kind of get stupid. Morty is the only show right now where I love just about everything about it and I’ll watch it continually whenever it’s on. It’s pretty much the only reason I have hulu.” I laughed a bit to myself at the sound of how I was speaking about my favorite cartoon out there right now as I showed Viki my keychain that had Rick obviously crazy eyed with a can of beer in his hand.    


“Oh my god I love it!! I wish I could’ve gone with you it sounds like it was a great time. I’m so jealous!!” She was always so bubbly that it caused me to smile and feel a bit better about myself.    


“We’ve tried watching Supernatural a couple of times but it was just never really our cup of tea. Do you ever watch shows with your dad?” I nodded my head though it was sadly because I was missing him a lot right now since my birthday that he was so excited about was coming up on Monday.    


“All the time, we have a lot of the same tastes in television like it has to have heart and have the general identity of being “different” from everything else. The ones that most fit into this quality are probably Mork & Mindy my favorite sitcom and he really loved Doctor Who as well. A lot of the time we’ll spend days together just binge watching a new show that I’ve discovered on my own. I can’t wait to do that with Invader Zim one of my favorite Nickelodeon cartoons of all time. I’ll never forget when he came up to my room and I was watching Rick & Morty and it was one of my favorite episodes Mortynight Run and it was during the Goodbye Moonmen scene. He heard Jemaine Clement who was a guest star on that episode and one of the comedy shows we used to watch together every night that it was on was a show called Flight Of The Conchords that a friend of mine Doug Lawrence who plays Plankton on Spongebob told me about. My dad surprisingly loved Rick & Morty and we watched it together since I was home for winter break. Every time that I would tell him I was too busy to FaceTime while I was at school he would text me back to get rigidity rigidity wrecked son one of his favorite quotes from the show. Basically he was a giant nerd much like me.” I laughed as I told that story about how I had gotten my dad into one of my favorite animation cartoons of the recent five years.    


“I’m sorry I shouldn’t have asked that question that was really personal and I was out of line.” He apologized and I just shook my head drying the tears that I didn’t even know were in my eyes at the time.    


“It’s not your fault baby, her birthday is on Monday and this will be the first one that she’s had to deal with in the last what thirteen years without him being there Abs?” I nodded my head shyly not really comfortable with where this conversation was going.    


“Yeah. Rob is planning this one I have no clue what he’s got up his sleeve but hopefully it doesn’t involve one of his pranks I’m really not in the zone for that right now. As far as I know it’s going to be a party with me and my small group of actor friends from all around LA. My two good friends that I’ve so far made from Rise Josh and Ben promised that they would come and the others did too when I first met them we’re all getting along really well, one of my childhood favorite villains John DiMaggio who played Dr. Drakken on Kim Possible but is better known to my boyfriends as Bender Bending Rodriguez from Futurama. There’s a lot of other people coming too but outside of the main three from Spongebob being Tom Kenny and Doug Lawrence as I previously mentioned I have really no idea who else is coming.” I looked out the window wishing that my dad would just come home already because I missed him more than anything right now. He was such a strong and constant figure in my life and now he wasn’t even here right now when I was going to become a full fledged adult. 

“I have something for you by the way, it should be the large bag in the back there on the floor of the middle seat. Bevins has something for you too but you’ll get that tomorrow when you meet him greedy guss.” Michael teased and I looked down seeing the overly large bag that was galaxy themed and I could already see was teeming with anime merchandise.    


“Michael you really didn’t have to do this for me. It was entirely unnecessary it’s just my eighteenth birthday not that big of a deal.” I could already see the figurines that were in the bag and wanted to look at the Kurisu one that I could see hanging out of the bag since she was technically my favorite I just looked more like Mayuri.    


“Don’t you dare try to say that you can’t accept it hun you’ve been through a lot lately. I helped him with finding a lot of the stuff in there and believe me when I say that there was even more but I put a block on him. Should she open it now baby or wait until Monday?” I could see Michael thinking about it but he just smiled at me teasingly.    


“Well her birthday isn’t technically until Monday so I say that she should wait until then. I’m telling Bevins the same thing.” I groaned but listened to him putting the bag into my backpack.    


“Fine be evil I guess I’ll just have to put it to the back of my mind and skype you when I open it at the party. It’ll be torture but I’m excited to wait and see what’s in here.” Viki just laughed at me as I took Abby out of my backpack and hugged the little fairy tightly.    


“We got together with Micah and Ian last weekend and we all watched your performance you were really great out there. Was that really your first time on live television?” I made the fifty fifty motion with my hand because technically I had been on the news before when my dad went through the drug overdose.    


“I mean I was on the news a lot for a couple of months when I was eleven and in my sophomore year of high school. That was easily the worst year for me and my dad. He went through a drug overdose that year and got sent to the hospital and then rehab after that where I stayed with Pepper his assistant and pretty much my mom or the closest thing that I have to a mother. It was just constant interviews and now it seems that we’re back at square one.” Viki squeezed my hand pulling out her phone and logging into her Twitter account clicking on the video that I knew instantly. It was from the other day with that jackass reporter who asked me if I was depressed and that was the reason why I was turning to cartoons of all things. 

“She’s honestly such a badass though, for somebody with Aspergers she’s always been good at giving the press the what for when it seems that they need it. This was tweeted out by Rob Paulsen early yesterday and was on CNN the night before. Where did you learn to dish out insults like that?” I laughed at Viki as she showed the video to Brandon and he played it at maximum volume.    


“Well if you’ve ever watched my dad doing interviews he’s the same way. Not really deflecting answers but if he is uncomfortable be prepared for the shit storm basically. He taught me how to handle the press when he first adopted me because he knew that I would get a lot of snide comments about being his illegitimate daughter or the effects of a one night stand. So that’s where I learned to deflect the press with insults back in there face. By the Jhonen Vasquez is absolutely incredible in real life, I got to talk with him the other day. He’s so cool!! Then again biased with my cartoon loving ass.” Everyone in the car got a huge laugh out of that snide comment both towards both the reporter and the way that he had personally insulted me.    


“I’m proud of you Abby, you did a good thing defending your father like that. It’s something that is so strong your love and admiration for your father.” Michael told me and I smiled at my friend for caring so much about me in this time of need.    


“It’s not that big of a deal I mean I like to think that he would do the same thing for me if I were in his situation and I’m trying to keep faith that he’ll just come back home to me sooner rather than later. I still never showed him Attack On Titan he was always interested in that one and would sit and watch some scenes of Levi’s with me since he’s my favorite.” I laughed at the memory of my dad looking at the screen when I was fifteen and thinking that was way past violent until he saw Levi and suddenly it was like he completely got it. He’s what kept me watching even the newer scenes though most of the fans have their own reasons for keeping up with it mine was so that I could see my favorite character succeed and move his way through the ranks yelling at his men to clean up the base that they were in if there was even a speck of dust.    


“Really? You’re a fan of Matt? You know he’s often at the studios there’s the possibility that you might run into him.” I instantly went for my sketchbook flipping through all my individual drawings trying to find the perfect one for him to sign if I did meet him at the studios since I was a major fan of his work.    


“She loves his stuff!! We used to watch the reboot of Thundercats all the time, Hunter X Hunter, the third season of Book Of Circus is her favorite and her favorite character is Joker. Most of that sketchbook that she’s looking at is practically dedicated to Levi she draws him a lot.” I stuck my tongue out at her because she wasn’t really helping me out here.    


“It’s not my fault Vik and you can’t not tell me that isn’t full of sketches of Eren because that is a complete lie. You’re just as bad as I am in fact you’re who I get it from. The animation in that show taught me a lot about action poses obviously with the 3D gliders that helped them move through the air. Now if you’re not going to help me I’d refrain from making fun of me please. And it’s also not my fault that he keeps getting casted as my favorite characters since I loved Joker long before they dubbed Book Of Circus.” I teased as I continued to look for the absolutely perfect drawing in this book that was pretty much filled with my favorite AoT character in various action poses with his sword before I found it.    


“There we go!! I found it this is the one that I want him to sign if I do see him there this one was the very first one that I ever made.” I showed them the drawing since Michael was stopped at a red light.    


“No way?! That was your first try?! That’s so good!!” Brandon encouraged and Viki looked at it nodding her head.    


“It’s taken straight from the show during one of the points where he’s swinging around. She would rewind the scene on her laptop to try and get the perfect fluid range of motion. I’m betting that you’re regretting leaving your Survey Corps jacket at home now aren’t you?” I tutted at her reaching through my backpack and finding the tan jacket that we had all gotten for a local con when we didn’t really feel like cosplaying except for me who was Sasha since she was the one that I looked the most like only really needing contacts.    


“As if I hardly go anywhere without this old thing, we got to meet Papenbrook during that con it was great. We stood in line for about an hour to wait for him to sign our prints and I put mine with my print notebook that I have back at home it’s a Masaomi from Durarara my favorite character that he has ever played. I have one from Vic that’s Edward, one from you that you should probably remember since it’s one of the lesser known characters Rei from Free, Ian did a Sousuke and Micah had one that was my favorite personally and it was Yurio.” I laughed at my friends as I showed them my booklet that I had in pictures from my phone.    


“I admire that about you that you can keep all these things even if most people just hang them up somewhere and forget about them. You don’t usually do that and you can keep them as memories forever.” I heard my best friend tell me and brushes the hair out of my eyes.    


“I’m suddenly really freaking nervous now that we’re almost there. Good lord I’ve been working towards this moment my entire childhood, Viks what if I choke?” I asked my best friend and she just flipped my hood up hugging me tightly but still awkwardly since we were sitting down.    


“You’ll do great, you won’t choke. You’ve worked hard to get where you are in this world and your father would be proud of you making it this far mostly on your own with the help of a couple really amazing friends. He wanted for you to be your true self and to look at your life without regret like he does. You’re about to probably meet Matthew Mercer aren’t you excited about that? You’ve been wanting to meet his guy since we were in college together all those years ago. He is there right?” Brandon nodded his head at me and winked encouragingly at me and it warmed my heart that I had all these people around me to stand by me.    


“Now’s not the time for looking forward in doubt Abby, you need to do what you were born to which is to go into that booth and blow people’s minds. You are an incredible actress and I see a ton of talent in you. Don’t be nervous just be your adorable lovey self it doesn’t matter if you freak out when you meet Matt he’s incredibly chilled out. I already know your routine that they’re going to want to see, it’s Momiji’s monologue about memories the same one that you did back in high school.” I groaned because that was fantastic I was going to go in there and probably cry now.    


“Great that means I’m probably going to cry once I get in the booth. That monologue is way too emotional for me like it is for a lot of people. I can do this though, I mean I’m going to be on a national television show that is being dubbed and shown all over the world.” I pushed up my glasses as we turned down the street and I saw the big building that I had been looking forward to seeing for most of my life. It had the same labeling that it did on the app that I had on my computer and television back home. I gripped my hoodie and took deep breaths through my nose trying to calm my anxiety the hell down.    


“Hey you’re going to be great in there okay Abby? There is no reason to be nervous, everyone here is really nice to the newcomers and you’re going to get the role that you’ve wanted for years. This is only the stepping stone if you get it because than you can play many other characters.” Brandon encouraged and I nodded my head as Michael parked and I opened the car door getting a rush of Texas heat but having too much anxiety to take off my hoodie. This was the only thing that kept me from jumping into the driver's seat of Michael’s car and driving off the same way that I had came. 

“Are you Abigail Stark? Hi I’m Justin Cook, frontliner here at Funimation and head of the company.” The man who had voiced Hatsuharu came in front of me and he was the polar opposite of what I had been expecting. 

“So wait half a second here, you’re Yusuke Urameshi? That was the first anime my dad ever showed me!! Sorry I’m her best friend and was her college roommate Viktoria Amoz.” Viki introduced herself to him and he just smiled at her and I shook myself out of my stupor. 

“Yes I’m Abby, that’s me sorry that was awkward I’m really really nervous about this. This has been my dream since I was eleven years old and saw Soul Eater for the first time with my dad and it’s one of the reasons why I wanted to be a voice actress.” Justin just laughed at the both of us interacting and being fangirls about the characters and the industry that he played such a big role in.    


“I’m surprised that you remembered the fact that I was Yusuke that was such a long time ago but he was great to work with even if I think that now looking back on it I was pretty awful. It was that cliche nineties cheese where you wondered if they needed a better director. It’s okay that your nervous but come on I’ll show you around. Michael, Brandon are you two sticking around?” They both nodded their heads and I pushed a lock of hair behind my ear deciding that I should pull it back into a ponytail so that I could adjust it as a nervous habit.    


“Yes we are actually sticking around, is Matt still around? He just wrapped up a recording session and mentioned that he would stick around so that Abby could meet him since she’s a bit of a Levi fan.” Justin just laughed at the four of us leading us out of the parking lot.    


“He’s sitting in one of the bean bag chairs he said that he was willing to wait for you to get cast. You’d be surprised how many people have fainted around him in the last five years from just playing Levi. We still have a little while before we record the first Momiji episode and we know that you want to get home quickly because of your birthday, happy birthday by the way eighteen is a pretty big deal.” I smiled at him as my friends all caught up with me as we looked inside and Michael held the door open for me.    


“You know I’m actually not that surprised, I mean if the Sebastian voice can fluster a women than it makes total sense to me.” I joked and Michael just laughed at me since that was one of his favorite somewhat evil things to do to people at least when I was at the con with him that was a common occurrence.    


“It’s not my fault, all I did was voice him and then everybody starts to continually freak the fuck out whenever I use it.” I laughed at him and nudged Viki’s shoulder as if to say see I told you that he used that power for evil.    


“I joke that’s why I fell in love with him because he can do accents really well.” I laughed even harder at the fact that Brandon was just so honest about this sort of thing and watched the blush that formed across my friend’s cheeks.    


“I can totally see that happening, alright Abby this is the big moment ready to go through the doors?” Viki asked me taking my hand and I nodded my head taking the pass that Justin had given me that had my favorite animal technically if you were to make me pick one and that was Hatori.    


“If you get this job, and you probably will you’re going to be doing a couple of cons with Kent Williams and myself since we’re the three that mostly stick together like glue.” Actually getting to do cons with somebody that I had admired for most of my life made me reach down and pinch my lower arm only to yelp in pain.    


“Yep not dreaming just making sure that I wasn’t still asleep back in Malibu there. I would love that to get to do cons and panels that’s crazy. I loved what Kent did back in the day with Hatori it was really the first character backstory where I openly cried my eyes out only for my dad to hand me the box of tissues that were next to the ottoman.” I laughed at memory that did hold such a high regard for me as I looked around seeing all the pictures that were of voice actors and actresses just like me voicing their characters. I stopped in front of one that was of Vic just admiring how happy he looked and how young he was holding up a script for the original FullMetal Alchemist.    


“I fought not to fire him but it was out of my control sometimes things like that happen and we just have to figure out the truth from the investigators about what really is going on there. He was your idol wasn’t he? He was a lot of young anime fans icon for a really long time. Was your favorite Edward? You look like an Elric type of girl.” I nodded my head just sighing as I looked up at the image wishing that he could tell me what had happened. It had to have been a complicated situation and I felt that Michael knew far more than he was letting on but he just didn’t want to talk to me about it.    


“Yeah, Edward Elric completely changed my life and the way that I see the world. For a long time I considered him on this pedestal that he was a man that could no wrong and maybe that was my fault for having too much faith in the goodness in people. My dad says that I get like that. That I tend to see the good in people that don’t really deserve it my ex-best friend was like that.” I continued to gaze at the picture until Viki tapped my shoulder and led me carefully down the hallway to see one of the man I was going to meet in a little while Matthew Mercer with an image of Joker in the background.    


“People are flawed Abby, it’s hard to think about but it’s the truth and you shouldn’t have that naive mind because that’s what’s gets you hurt by those around you.” Michael warned me for once in his life serious and I looked up at the man who I also idolized for a really long time during my childhood.    


“ I know that now, I was in middle school good lord Michael. I’m probably just always going to be naive it’s part of my Aspergers you know that. It’s the part of me that makes me think that Mayuri is on the spectrum somewhere.” I hummed to myself gazing at all the other idols that had been in this studio before we moved on from the pictures and I saw this full scale model of Edward and Alphonse in the entryway and I couldn’t help but smile.    


“This is really cool!! I would have loved for this to be in my room when I was growing up seriously badass. Hell I’d probably still want it in my room now if it wasn’t overrun by drawings as big as small scale posters hanging up in my room.” I mentioned taking a picture of the statue and texting it to both of my boyfriends since I had just gotten Elliot started on the original show before bed last night. I told him to watch the first twenty episodes of that and then watch Brotherhood since that was the way that I did it my first time around and it’s the way that was recommended to me.    


“Maybe did you ever think about stop getting famous voice actors to sign your artwork? Or better yet stop meeting famous people?” I laughed at Viki as she came back to my side and the other adults talked about grown up things. 

“I know but I also can’t help it much, I mean I could get rid of some of them. I feel like my Danny Phantom one signed by Butch Hartman needs to be burned in a blazing fire. He was such an ass with me, want to take a selfie in front of this bad boy?” I asked Viki and she nodded her head enthusiastically moving to stand by me and thrusted her hand out and I made my alchemy pose with my hands together just like my favorite hero in shonen action series.    


“Hey!! That’s kinda cute do me next this is kind of hard to hold my phone out.” I took the picture of my best friend as she made her own alchemy pose smiling at her as it warmed my heart seeing her so happy after nearly a year of not seeing her at all. 

“I’m so instagramming these, you want me to do the same thing with you?” She asked me wondering if she could filter through my instagram and I nodded my head giving her my phone.    


“Go ahead I trust you, I need to get moving anyways if I’m going to get this audition done.” I followed Justin down to where the booths were and looking over to the other side I felt my anxiety and fearfulness when I saw Caitlin Glass sitting at the ADR directors chair and I sighed taking a couple of deep breaths as she moved so that she could talk with me in the booth probably something that she was just doing this once so we could formally meet. 

“Hi I’m Caitlin!! You must be Abigail right? Do you go by Abby? Oh my god I love your hoodie so much it’s adorable, is that your boyfriend’s? I probably shouldn’t have asked that it’s kind of a personal question.” I smiled at the fact that this thankfully wasn’t awkward in the slightest. 

“Yes and might I say that I am a huge fan of your work in the past. Winry was a huge inspiration to me in middle and high school since I felt that I was leagues smarter than my peers especially electronics and engineering like her. I do go by Abby it’s kind of a personal nickname since I grew up with Abby Cadabby the fairy on Sesame Street. Oh thank you, it is one of my boyfriends, I have two this one is Jeremy’s which explains why it’s so big on me he’s still in high school and does a lot of sports.” I told her shaking her hand and brushing a stray strand of hair behind my ear.    


“I don’t really get a lot of Winry fangirls, I mean I love and admire her because she’s such a strong woman you know? I think that she’s incredible and a great role model for women to achieve their dreams. Aww that’s so cute, I’ll bet that you were adorable at that age. I take it that you’re really nervous? Don’t be this will be a really easy and simply done audition. You’ll be in and out of here and we’ll let you know at the end of it if you got the role. But if you’re asking me you’ve got this in the bag if by what Michael has told us about you. All you have to do is his monologue about memories. I look forward to talking with you more, I’m tagging along with all of you to dinner Michael invited me.” The man in question whistled outside trying to look as inconspicuous as possible. 

“Of course he invited you because the man loves to see me babble on and on about characters that I love. It’s bad enough they invited Matthew Mercer to come with us but now add you to the mix and I’m going to be a mess. I’m kidding I just get really self conscious about my talking levels. I’m kidding just be for warned that I’m going to be a babbling mess in front of Matthew that’s going to be a disaster. It’s a good thing that I did that monologue back in high school when I was requested to do a really emotional one on the spot. I read that manga so much as a little girl and loved the anime too of course.” Caitlin just laughed at me and squeezed my shoulder gently.    


“Don’t worry about the talking too much kiddo, if you haven’t noticed I sort of have a similar problem. If it means anything for you I’m looking forward to working with you and I hope that you get it so we can boost your career to the highest.” She encouraged and I gave her the thumbs up as she went back into the booth and I slipped my headphones over my ears.    


_ “Alright Abby can you hear me okay?”  _ I heard Caitlin’s voice through the device and I nodded my head.    


_ “So you’ve read the manga and seen the show obviously since you just told me that you did so you know his backstory. That’s what we want for you to read off the script. It’s nearly identical to the one from the manga so you’re going to do great.”  _ I smiled flipping through the script and I smiled to myself reading the monologue that I knew with the back of my heart. I tried my hardest to put my heart into this character that I had grown up loving and this was the best thing to probably ever happen to me. If I had memories of my own mother and father would I want to forget them? Would I be okay with them forgetting me was what was most important to this character. I took a deep breath and started from the top before his mother even entered the scene.    


“That would be nice. But mama… doesn’t know about me. Of all the luck!! She saw me. I’ll have to apologize to papa later. Like I said, mama doesn’t know about me. Or more like, she forgot. Now mama thinks I’m the son of another Sohma. Children blessed by the spirits are born two months early. You meet and fall in love with someone. You get married. You have a baby. But when you cradle that child… and it turns into some strange baby animal. I wonder about the depths of despair… a mother of such a child would feel. In many cases, the mother of a child… possessed by such a supernatural being… becomes extremely overprotective or rejects her offspring. In my case mama rejected me. She rejected me with every fiber of her being. She refused to even look at me. Even so, she was always on edge… and often screamed hysterically. Looking back… I figure she was emotionally broken like Kana. Mama’s condition god really bad… but… the doctor said she may heal if she forgets about you. And so… I was scrubbed from mama’s memory. She got better after that. Two months later she was smiling again. I hope I was able to help mama… I want to live… with the burden of memories. Even the sad memories… even the memories that hurt me… Even the memories I wish I could forget. I have enough faith that if I keep doing my best to bear that burden… without running away… I’ll eventually become strong enough… that memories like this won’t get me down. I want to… believe that. I want to believe… that not a single memory… should be forgotten. That’s why… I really didn’t want mama… to forget me. I didn’t want to give her up. But this is just… me being selfish. This is between you and me. I don’t need the entire family thinking that I’m some over emotional child.” I don’t think I was expecting for this scene to hit me like such a truck but maybe it was because I was currently missing my dad so much and I wondered what it would be like to have a complete family. Not just my dad but a mother too. My birth mother who gave me up, why did she do it? Was I not enough for her? Was she in a bad place? I knew that I wanted answers but also that it would be selfish of me to go to ask for them. I dried my eyes hoping that at least sounded good but judging from the shocked look on everybody’s faces I could tell that they were surprised at the very least.    


_ “Abby, that was amazing!! I’m honestly stunned at the fact that you did that so well on your first take. I hereby consider you cast in your first Funimation dub as Momiji Sohma in Fruits Basket 2019!!”  _ Justin said excitedly and I started to cry fresh tears before I crumbled to the floor in this heap of emotion as Viki bursted through the doors wrapping her arms around me. 

“M-My dad he always promised he would be here when I eventually got cast in an anime. H-He always said that I could do it and I love the fact that I get to. It’s selfish but I wish that he was here right now. He would be proud of me. At least I like to think that he would be.” Viki just smiled at me as I calmed myself down using my own new tactics to get myself out of my head.    


“He would be so proud of you honey, you’ve had to constantly work hard your whole life and now you can stand at the top of that mountain that you’ve made for yourself and take a deep breath before screaming I finally made it. This has been your dream since you were a really small child and I can tell that you’re happy to be here today. I mean my best friend is going to be her favorite character from the original anime since it’s the one that she could most relate to. You had to give up your mother to get where you are and in doing that you gained an incredible father figure and a small acting family that loves you and is proud of you. Rob is so immensely proud of you so is Tom, Doug, Stephen like it or not and so many other people that I haven’t even met yet and the most important thing is that you keep growing becoming a better actress and working on being a better girlfriend to your boyfriends. I don’t think that it’s humanly possible that your father wouldn’t look at you today nearly a month after he’d gone to Afghanistan and not be proud of you.” I smiled at the fact that Viki had cared so much about me and Michael just watched from the corner of the room with a proud smile on his face. 

“You did a great job, that had to be some of the best voice acting that I have ever seen. This is such an emotional story for a lot of people and they remember Momiji by this scene and his backstory. It’s clear that he means a lot especially to you since you were an orphan and never met your own parents. You can relate to what he goes through which is why I thought that you were perfect for this role and this character.” I pulled out of the hug that Viki was giving me to engulf my voice acting for anime icon and he only rested his chin on the top of my head and hugged me back.    


“I couldn’t have done this without you Michael, I owe you more than I can put into words you’re this incredible person. Thank you for making good on the promise that you made me last December it means more to me than I can say.” Michael just laughed at me ruffling my bangs that were in front of my face.    


“Oh you got here all on your own sugar all I did was tell them about how talented you were and got your foot through the door. There wasn’t much else I could’ve done you got into the booth and voiced him to this perfect tee. You’re going to make a lot of people cry this year I can tell you that right now.” I laughed at my good friend as Justin came through the doors of the booth and Caitlin did too. 

“I knew that you could do it!! You just have this sort of aura about you of professionalism but at the same time you were able to convey what he was going through revisiting this story even if it’s like a dagger through his heart he wants to tell Tohru just what it means to be a child of the zodiac. In Kyo’s case his mom protected him constantly checking his bracelet but in both Momiji’s case and your own you know how it feels to be rejected by a parent even if you never truly met her and don’t know who she is.” I nodded my head with a small smile on my face drying the tears that were there.    
“We have to do your interview upstairs as well as take the professional picture of you. What shirt do you have on underneath that hoodie?” I blushed at the fact that it was totally nerdy and absolutely probably not what they were expecting.    


“It’s a cartoon themed shirt so it probably won’t work. I got it from Rob when I first met him.” I unzipped it showing them my Yakko’s Nations Of The World shirt that I was currently wearing.    


“I think that will be fine actually, I feel like most people will be really depressed if we don’t get your picture in something nerdy.” I laughed at Michael nudging his shoulder playfully sticking my tongue out at him as I saw his fiance drying his eyes.    


“You know something Abby? You’ve really got a talent for this kind of work I think that this will be just your stepping stone on the pathway to one day being as big a name as this guy here.” He jerked a thumb at Michael and I just laughed at Brandon pushing a lock of hair into my ponytail.    


“I don’t know about that but thanks for the boat of confidence there Brandon. I’ll just stick with being myself and see where that gets me. I already have cons that I’m going to actually be doing panels at and that’s enough social anxiety for me thanks. I never thought that I was actually going to be a member of this business so I wasn’t really that emotionally prepared for this. I’ll probably need to talk to Rob about getting over my social anxiety he’s been pestering me about it for years.” Viki just put her arm through mine with a wide smile on her face that stretched from ear to ear.    


“Just take it day by day, for now I’m just happy that my best friend is going to be in one of my favorite anime of all time. I’m year of the dragon and she was always rather jealous of that fact that she gets that rubbed in her face. Hatori is one of her all time favorites, I joke that she has a penchant for the cold hearted bastards since her favorite character in Attack On Titan is obviously Levi.” I stepped lightly on my best friend’s foot with my Beast Boy sneakers as Caitlin seemed to notice them.    


“Oh those are really super cute!! Where did you find them? Did you make them yourself? Do they have his paw prints on the bottom of the shoe?” Caitlin asked and I raised my foot up so she could see the bottom of it.    


“ I didn’t make them myself I’m not really that creative. I got them from a really dear friend of mine, most of my acting friends I got to meet through my tenth birthday when my best friend and now boyfriend decided to invite all my favorite creative people to the then Nickelodeon hotel that used to be up in Orlando. Rob Paulsen was one of them the voice of one of my favorite characters in animation history Yakko Warner, Tom Kenny who needs no introduction he’s Spongebob, Doug Lawrence who plays Plankton and Carolyn Lawrence who plays Sandy Cheeks. We also had creators Stephen Hillenburg who was the imagination behind Spongebob Squarepants and Ciro Nieli who had made my favorite cartoon come to life Teen Titans. One of the ones that wasn’t able to make it due to personal reasons was Greg Cipes the voice of the incomparable Beast Boy and my favorite hero who changed my life. He gave me this incredible gift basket that was filled to the brim with Teen Titans garb as well as things themed to Michelangelo and this was one of the things in that bag.” I told her hopping so that I could get my foot back on the ground. 

“That’s really awesome!! It sounds like you’ve had a great life so far in these last eighteen years. You surrounded yourself with all these incredible people. Come on let’s do this interview!!” I could feed off of Caitlin’s enthusiasm easily for the rest of my life since she was so loud and animated. I followed them up the stairs to the lobby where they had set up cameras almost making me think that they knew I would get the role. I hung up my jacket on the rack next to me and took some deep breaths. 

“Can I do her interview guys? It might make her more comfortable since she’s friends with me.” Michael recommended and I nodded my head as Justin thought for a moment.    


“Okay that sounds good actually, we do need to get the picture for the image that we’re going to put next to Momiji. Are you comfortable with showing the gap between your teeth?” I nodded my head even though I really wasn’t it was just one picture and most people knew that I had it anyways.    


“Not necessarily but everybody that’s a fan of mine already knows that it’s there so I don’t see the point in hiding it.” I told him getting onto the white line and letting out this wide smile because for one of the first times in a long time I felt truly comfortable with what was happening.    


“That looks great!! Now for the interview, there are four questions that we’ve asked pretty much every voice actor except we added your zodiac sign.” I smiled at the fact that my sign was the character that I was going to be playing still not believing that this was actually happening to me.    


“Alright sunny let’s get this over with, I’m kidding what character voice do you want for me to use?” He asked me and I thought for a moment before deciding on my choice. 

  
“ Is Okarin an option?” I asked him and he threw his head back instantly going into the thing that most people knew about Rintarou Okabe.

“Okay Mayuri these are going to be easy so I need you to pay attention. Were you aware of Fruits Basket before you were cast?” I laughed at him just being over dramatic to a tee and this is one of the thousands of reasons why he was one of my favorite people.    


“ I was very much aware of it and it’s my second favorite anime and manga of all time. I first heard about when I was eleven years old and in my freshman year of high school. I pretty much raced through the grades of regular schooling and even college so this led to me not having a lot of friends. I got into anime when I was ten with a little show called Soul Eater that I was probably way too young to be watching but my dad deemed it safe and even watched it with me. My second anime was Fruits Basket and it’s one of the many reasons why I love the medium of anime so much.” I gave a bit more of my backstory with the anime industry than probably most people did but as this was my first show I figured and deemed it necessary. 

“The second question is, what is your zodiac animal and which one would you want to be?” I laughed at just the fact that this was indeed my life talking with Michael in his mad scientist voice, at Funimation studios, being interviewed as one of the newer cast members on Fruits Basket.    


“The funny thing is that I am actually the year of the rabbit which is ironic because he’s not only one of my favorite characters but also the one that I got cast as. As a whole, year of the rabbits are said to be creative, show a lot of compassion and be sensitive. I have all of those traits and the only one that I don’t is surrounding myself with people. That’s where me and Momiji diverge is I am not a people person. If I have to be something else I would want to be year of the dragon. Mostly because they are awesome and growing up Hatori had my favorite backstory hands down.” I gave a bit more of my backstory as to why these characters meant so much to me.    


“ You’ve dreamed about coming here for so many years now, is voice acting everything that you thought it would be?” I nodded my head so enthusiastically I probably looked like a bobble head.    


“This was always my dream ever since I was a little girl and watching cartoons on my dad’s couch with him. Cartoons gave me something that I could really take to heart and taught me to be the imaginative. Anime helped me come out of my shell back in high school and helped me to become the person that you see in front of you today. It has always been my dream to walk through these studios and say that I work here at Funimation since I was really young.” I could pinch myself right now and if I woke up on the couch back at home I would seriously throw something because this was the best dream I could ever think of.    


“Okay this is the last question Mayuri and then it’s off to discover time travel through a microwave, is there any message that you would like to give to the fans of Fruits Basket?” I laughed at my friend pushing my chair a bit further backwards with a small smile on my face.    


“ Yes I do actually. This show is one of the most heartbreaking out there especially now that it’s going to follow the manga so fangirls just be ready with your box of tissues. I’m going to give this show the best I can and bring my favorite bubbly little rabbit the best voice over that I can. I’m really excited to start doing cons with Kent and Justin this year to promote the new show and hope that I can bring him to life in this new and more dramatic way.” I smiled and just let myself enjoy this moment in time where I could be fully happy with my friends and treasure the fact that this was indeed my life. Being a voice actress had always been that one dream that I never thought that I would ever accomplish but standing here and being myself with Michael as he interviewed me for this new take on the old classic just made me believe that maybe there was something worthwhile other than staying inside my little bubble. 

“And that’s a wrap, you did a great job Abby and that was by far the funniest interview we’ve had so far even though Jerry’s had cat puns.” I laughed at the fact that one of my favorite voice actors made cat puns to show how he was coming back to the tsundere that everybody loved.    


“I would have actually really loved to see that, I’ve been a fan of his for as long as I can probably remember. He’s one of those infamous voice actors that’s done so many characters everybody loves I mean him in Yuri On Ice and Hetalia? Come on!!” Viki had loved the queer show about ice skaters learning how to have confidence in themselves and having the ability to love both the artform and each other.    


“He gets a lot of love for both of those shows from what I hear and you’ll be meeting all the cast members since you’re one of them now too. Kent wanted to be here but he canceled at the last minute. He’ll be here next time that you come when we need to record Momiji’s first episode.” I smiled at the fact that everyone was so welcoming to me when I saw the one and only Matthew Mercer and I fingered the end of the sketch that I wanted for him to sign.    


“I’m a really big fan of your work, pretty much since I was a freshman in college when Attack on Titan first came out. My best friend jokes that this entire sketchbook is pretty much filled with Levi fanart of him doing various maneuvers with the zero gravity technology. I also loved Joker in Book Of Circus and goddammit already brain to mouth filter sometimes I really hate having Aspergers. I’m Abigail Stark.” I cursed myself mentally for sounding like such a dumbass but Michael just put an arm around my shoulders.    


“It’s quite alright, you know it’s kind of endearing. I’m not able to come to dinner actually something came up and my wife wants me home. But I can talk for a little while until Kent gets down here. I’m Matt, though you’ve probably already figured that out. Can I see the sketchbook?” I nodded my head handing him the artwork that I had made for the corporeal of the Survey Corps that Eren joined. He flipped through all the pages looking at them in awe.    


“These are absolutely incredible!! I haven’t seen anything like this outside of the anime you could animate him for production IG this is totally mind blowing Michael look at this. Oh these are for you, I’ll be honest Brandon kind of sprang it on me that it was your birthday so they’re kind of from the gift shop. I heard that you already have the jacket because I think that most every AoT fan does.” I looked at the bag that seemed to be filled with various items that were in the gift shop here for one of my favorite seinen shows.    


“ You didn’t have to do that but thank you very much. Are you serious? I’ve always been praised for my skills but this is the first time that anybody has ever told me to actually join a company especially one as big and huge as IG. I’ve always admired Levi’s strength it’s one of those things that I loved about him the most. He changed the way that I think about my own life he is the most important character to happen to me in the last five years other than Edward Elric. I don’t know why really he just taught me about what real strength is. It’s about moving forward past the times of sorrow and showing the world that you’re stronger than they think even if that means nobody sees that they get to you.” I gave my personal opinion looking through the bag and saw that there was actually the cape that I had seen. I put it over my shoulders and tapped Viki’s shoulders even though she was not paying any attention to me currently. She turned and gapped at me as I did a little circle.    


“Check it!! I love this thing so much and it fits me perfectly it’s so cute.” I smiled brightly at my best friend as I gave my best friend the cloak so that she could try it on too since she loved it too.    


“Actually can you do me one really quick favor? This is my first drawing I ever made of Levi five years ago. A lot of people are surprised that this was my first one since it looks so much like him.” I asked him and handed him the pen that I had as well looking through the rest of the bag finding a plushie of my favorite corporal, a blanket of Eren fighting that was really soft to the touch and a bag of my favorite candy starburst jellybeans.    


“You must have figured this out from Michael he’s one of the few people that know my main food crack. I don’t get them a lot but my dad bought me this huge bag of them when I graduated from college that lasted me nearly a year.” I instantly opened the bag and took a handful popping them into my mouth one by one.    


“ I actually don’t get a lot of kudos for Black Butler even though I loved Joker. He’s such an emotional character a man who did everything just to make sure that his family would remain intact. Tell me, if you were to have to be a member of the Survey Corps would you do it?” I shook my head animatedly hugging the small plushie that would go up on display once I got back home.    


“Oh no way!! I’m too anxious to do some crazy shit like that I’d rather just watch the show and enjoy the characters from that distance. However, I would love to be a member of the Noah’s Ark Circus I know that they’re not that different but they’re a small family that stuck by each other until the end of the day. It’s such a gory show but I know that I’d be dead within the first ten seconds.” He just laughed at me throwing his head back and enjoying the moment the same as me.    


“Everybody asks me that question at cons and I’m just like how about no. I’d be running away as far as I could and not even bothering with it. I mean Book of Circus was dark but not nearly as twisted as a world where Titans exist and they’re out to kill you. This is really amazing though Abby, you really do have a talent with a pencil for your first drawing with him the maneuver gear. The first time that I saw the characters flying around and bouncing from building to building I thought that I was actually doing it with them.” I nodded my head totally agreeing with everything that he was saying.    


“The entire Black Butler franchise as a whole is dark as hell and that’s kind of one of the reasons that I think people were drawn to these characters. They’re not good people but they’re willing to do what it takes to save as many people as possible. The only problem with it is that I’ve never really related to any of the characters like Joker I get. He had to do horrible things that he hated doing because he didn’t want to lose the family and end up back on the streets. It’s such a moving story about the true meaning of family. When I watched Book of Circus dubbed when the series first came out it was with my dad who hadn’t seen the other series so we had to backtrack and I showed him the first season skipping the second and going right to the third. We were both a mess by the end of it and ever since then it’s been my favorite season even to the point where I bought this when I was at the con…” I pulled up an image of the wallscrowl that was currently hanging up in my skateboard room.    


“Oh that’s awesome!! Full disclosure I wasn’t expecting Joker’s death in the slightest and I actually cried in the booth and they just kept it there thinking that it sounded more emotional. It was hard not to when you grow attached to a character and then suddenly their fighting for their lives while learning all these horrifying things that had been happening without their knowledge. I mean the way that the prosthesis were made…” I shuddered remembering the psychopathic doctor that had and Michael only laughed at the two of us interacting as Matt finished signing the bottom of the drawing.    


“She loves the side characters in that show, you don’t even like Sebastian do you?” I shook my head because that wasn’t technically true but it kind of was he was better than Ciel in my personal opinion I would give him that much.    


“I still don’t like some of the things that he’s done but in his defense he’s a literal demon and that’s his excuse for being so deplorable. I love the reapers though!! My favorite is actually Knox he’s amazing and kind of reminds me of my boyfriend right now down to the glasses and the flirty nature.” I showed them the lockscreen on my phone gesturing which one was Jeremy.    


“I have two boyfriends the one that’s like Knox is Jeremy on the base there and the one in the middle is Elliot my other boyfriend. I’ve only been dating them for a little bit less than a month, I met Elliot last month at a sleepover with my ex-best friend Katie.” I told them and Viki put her arm around my shoulders as Matt handed me the sketch that he had written a rather detailed letter to me. 

_ Dear Abby,  _ _   
_ _ I’ve heard stories about you, obviously we all have Michael could talk anybody’s ear off about you. He does that with pretty much anyone that he cares about. When he told me about how much of a Levi fan you were from such a young age it surprised me since the show can get so dark and gory sometimes. Looking at you now, it’s obvious why you love him so much. You related to that sensibility of wanting to protect those around you no matter what and even though you’re far more bubbly and optimistic than he’ll ever be I can still see that lingering sadness that he tends to almost always have. People were drawn to him because of the simple reason that he’s a badass, I mean the scene on the horse from the third season trailer? I can only think of one man that could try to pull that off.  _

_ You have so much obvious respect for the people that are in the industry that it was surprising to me when I finally got to talk to you. Seeing your eyes light up when you saw the cloak in the bag made me feel like I did one good thing today and that was making you smile and spin around in something that clearly meant something to you. I can’t wait to talk with more about debating whether or not joining the Survey Corps is a good idea (especially the special ops I mean God knows how much they have to clean off screen!!) I want to hear you talk more about your opinions on Black Butler, especially the Ronald Knox being your favorite Reaper since mine is Spears just because he takes himself way too fucking seriously. I want you to text me the next time that you come into the studios so that I’ll be able to sit and talk with you more.  _ _   
_ _ Your corporal and commander of special ops,  _ _   
_ _ Matthew Mercer.  _ I dried the tears that were in my eyes and just realized that this was the moment in my life where I felt like I was the happiest I had ever been. Getting to meet one of my biggest idols didn’t help me in the slightest and I couldn’t help but be slightly emotional. 

“Here take one of them, God knows I have enough of them, in fact I know the perfect one hold on one second it’s in here somewhere.” I flipped through the pages thumbing shaking my head before I found the one that I was looking for seeing Viki’s shocked face since this my all time favorite one that I had ever made.    


“This one is my all time favorite that I have ever made, it used to be on the door of my bedroom so it’s a little bit mangled but I promised myself that if I ever got to meet you I would give it to you. My best friend made me pajamas of this art right here except instead of the curse word he put freaking.” I had taken an inspiration from the I Want You posters that they had made for the military but made it Levi instead with his cleaning gear on and it said “I want you to clean this fucking room right now.” It was one of the most vulgar things that I had ever made but I thought of it as motivation for myself since my room was usually a chaotic disaster fire. The loud laughter that I received from Matt made everything a little bit more than worth it.    


“ Oh my god, this is amazing thank you Abby I’ll treasure it. I’ve received more than enough Levi fanart in my days from incredible artists just like you but this one is my all time favorite. I could just totally see him putting these out as flyers in the kitchen and everyone just rolling their eyes.” He hugged me and I hugged him back with a soft smile on my face.    


“Can you do me one more favor? I’m sorry I know that you’re in a hurry and everything but her girlfriend isn’t going to believe me when I say that I met you.” I asked him and Viki got her phone ready when he nodded as we did one normal and one goofy.    


“Thanks for doing this with her Matt, I know that you weren’t originally coming in today. It means a lot to her especially.” Brandon told his friend and he just smiled giving me another hug.    


“ It was fine, I really enjoyed talking with her and wish that I could come to dinner. You’ll just have to tell me ahead of time when you’re coming back alright?” I nodded my head and he waved to all of us as I gripped the ends of the bag.    


“So what did you think? He’s pretty great isn’t he? We all really love his stuff around here and he comes by a lot just for fun. I’ve never seen him so happy to receive fanart though so it must have been something special.” I laughed at Caitlin as I adjusted my cloak that was around my shoulders.    


“So a bit of backstory behind that drawing and a typical trait of just Aspies in general is that my room isn’t the most clean and organized and it drove my best friend and her girlfriend Mimi who will come with me next time even if I have to to drag her kicking and screaming up the wall. She’s super into everything being clean much like how Levi is when the new year starts and basically any time. So what I did was I made this sketch to put at the front of my bedroom door that was inspired by the I Want posters with Sam on the front of them that we made in World War II. Instead of having the posterboy on there though I put Levi in cleaning garbs that said…” I gestured for Viki since she was much more vulgar than I was something that I joked happened because she hung out with her girlfriend way too much.    


“I want you to clean this room right fucking now. It was the funniest thing since when you meet Mimi the first thing that you’ll realize is that while I love her more than life itself she has about the same filter as Deadpool. Basically if she’s thinking it it’s most likely said no matter if it contains foul language or not. Every time that she saw that poster outside of her room she would just start laughing her ass off. It became such a running gag in our apartment that when Abby moved out since she graduated early Mimi got her these pajamas that said that exact same quote with that same image but it said freaking instead. Similarly to when I had these pajamas themed to Rick and Morty made for her that said shut the hell up about Moonmen as opposed to the actual line being shut the fuck up about Moonmen. It’s a Rick & Morty thing…” She gave her side of the story and I looked into the bottom of the bag seeing something that I had actually missed.    


“Michael did you tell him my shoe size? That’s a little weird, how did you even know that? I guess I finally have a pair of the boots. I wore flats when I was doing the con since I couldn’t find good quality versions of the boots online at the time or at Hot Topic.” I asked the voice actor as I tried them on just to make sure that they fit alright. They fit perfectly and snug as a bug I wanted to wear them right now but knew that I could wear them on Monday. I would wear my Attack on Titan cosplay if I had any way about it even if Pepper fought me to wear a dress.    


“ I did actually because he texted me while you were recording and he was rummaging through the gift shop trying to find the perfect presents for you.” I smiled at the fact that he cared so much about me unclipping the cloak and folding it back up carefully so that I wouldn’t look like a total nerd when  we got to the restaurant.    


“He was really amazing, I can’t wait to talk to him more. I’m going to have to fight Mimi to keep his phone number to myself since she’s an even bigger fan of his than I am. You think I love Levi, wait until you meet her oh boy. That was the character that she originally wanted to cosplay as for the con but Vik eventually convinced her to Ymir while she was Krista and I was Sasha obviously because I look the most like her and I love food even though I’m vegetarian.” I smiled softly putting the items that he gave to me into my backpack taking a swig from my water bottle that had 2012 Donatello on it sitting at one of his computers.    


“Really? How long have you been veggie? That’s actually kind of surprising, I would have expected the daughter of Tony Stark to be a huge fan of steak.” Justin asked and I gagged and tried to keep my vomit down at the simple mention of meat.    


“It’s not my finest moment but I’ll tell the story anyways. It was when I was six and in the first grade. My best friend and now my boyfriend Jeremy was in the kindergarten but he was there that day sitting down next to me as we watched this family of farmers take us through their day. Their daughter had brought a cow heart with her along with the guts and I just ran out of the room to vomit in the bathroom. I went home early that day and made a promise to myself that I would never touch another piece of meat in my entire life and I would be vegetarian like Beast Boy. I have been that way for the last twelve years of my life and I’ve actually been really healthy. I could never go full vegan because of reasons mostly because I love cheese and ice cream way too much. I also couldn’t let bread go and I think that it tastes it’s best with eggs.” I gave my explanation nearly having war flashbacks right here and I was sick to my stomach already as Michael came to sit next to me.    


“That is absolutely revolting Abby, I think that anybody would go your route if they saw what you did. You did a great job with Matt by the way once you got past the introductions. I knew that he would love you now you just need to meet Chris tomorrow which will be easy. You’ll find that most of us are immensely easy to talk to once you get past the introductions. Especially since you’re just this naturally cute, sweet, bubbly and kind hearted person.” I smiled at Michael putting my backpack back over my shoulders and sighed happily.    


“I’m with him that’s one of the most disgusting things that I’ve ever heard in my entire life. Can I join you on the healthy side of things?” Brandon joked and I laughed at him with a small smile. 

  
“ There’s a reason that I usually don’t talk about it my boyfriend loves to tease me about it sometimes and he’ll tell the story since I’m not that comfortable with it. He surprisingly is still a carnivore after all that but he thinks he might go veggie after he finishes high school.” I mentioned fingering the ends of my backpack with a small smile on my face.    


“Why aren’t you still in high school? Did you graduate early? I would’ve expected that the daughter of Tony Stark would have gone to some big prestigious school not to be that person or anything.” I smiled at Caitlin since that wasn’t offensive in the slightest.    


“I umm might be a certifiable genius as I mentioned I sort of zoomed through the grades in high school and graduated when I was thirteen. I did go to MIT which is where I met this crazy cat but I’m graduated from that now too have been since last May. I got my doctorate in engineering and technology from there as well as being valedictorian which I would have been in high school too but there was a consultation and I didn’t get it. I studied my ass off and graduated college within the regular time for a normal person but a higher degree because she will tell you that I hardly took any breaks at all.” I showed the four of them my Will E Coyote business cards that my dad had given to me. They all got a good laugh out of it and I looked at them with a small sad smile.    


“Her dad gave her those when she was eleven and got her diagnosis for both the genius and the aspergers when she was ten.” I smiled at Viki as I showed it to Justin since he was just getting back here.    


“It looks like we’ve done just about everything here for today. You did great in the booth Abby, this will surely not be your first role here. We won’t be dubbing A Place Further Than The Universe for a really long time but it’ll be nice to know that you’ll definitely be one of them. It’s just a matter of if Chris likes you which I doubt that he won’t since everyone else has quite enjoyed talking with you.” I nodded my head with a small smile putting my hands in my hoodie pockets.    


“Okay so I have to ask you, who is your My Hero Academia “best girl”? There are so many of them and they all are different types of personalities.” Brandon asked me as me, Viki, Michael and Caitlin all headed towards the exits.    


“That’s actually really easy for me to answer my favorite girl is Ochako Uraraka. I cosplayed as her for a con while I was in college during one of them because I just wanted to and was one of many. I dressed in her school uniform since even though I have the body for her superhero suit I was a little bit too skinny back then because I have the tendency to forget to eat. I get busy especially with projects or reading a book and suddenly it’s the end of the day and I haven’t eaten anything yet.” Viki put her arm through mine and just smiled at me pushing the bangs out my face.    


“Mine personally is Mina and I know that Caitlin plays her but it’s the truth. I can relate to her bubbly party girl personality since that was basically me in high school. It was pretty ugly actually looking back on it now but I’m better now. It was a lot of me being rebellious and my parents trying to control me. Even now it’s the same story, I could’ve been a great artist but thanks to their hold on my life there’s no way out of it. They eventually became accepting of me being gay but even that took a long ass time.” I smiled sadly at my best friend who was basically my older sister and she took me by the hand showing me how to myself.    


“I’m really sorry that happened to you but it looks like you’re better now. Aren’t you an adult? Then why are you still doing what they say? Sorry that’s a really personal question don’t mind me. Mina is great, she’s the type of person that I wish I could be in my own life. I’m probably the most like Haruhi which is why she’s my favorite character that I’ve ever played. You actually remind me a lot of how I would imagine Winry would look with brown hair Abby. This kind of independent women with a teasing demeanor and even if she loves you that doesn’t mean she won’t lose her chill on epic proportions when given the right situation.” I laughed remembering my dad in the hospital as I yelled at him for being such a dumbass.    


“You’re not wrong about that, when my dad went down the deep end six years ago I basically went full Winry Rockbell on his ass. That was easily the only time that I could say that I hated something he had done. He’s far from perfect, he makes mistakes but I still love my dad more than anything in the world. He adopted me, he didn’t have to but he did. He took a broken girl and taught her how to be strong so that nobody could ever belittle her. I don’t think I’ve ever been more angry at him than I was in that year, true he got sober and cleaned up his act on the drug front but it was still really hard for me. Even if he were to come back right now I wouldn’t be mad at him I would be too busy trying to hug him and communicate exactly how much I’ve missed his presence.” Michael put his hand on my shoulder supportively his eyes caring towards what I was going through.    


“He would be proud of you Abby. You’re moving forward and not grieving for the time that he was away. If I know your father he’s going to come back to you from the stories that you’ve told me. And the minute that he does I want him to come down here for your next time in the booth. You’re pretty much the closest thing I have to a younger sister.” I smiled at the voice actor that had meant the world to me and I nudged his shoulder playfully.    


“Yeah I’ll tell him, he was always fascinated with the animation industry. Plus he’ll never admit it but he loves anime a whole lot and not just the stuff he grew up with. He’s watched a good majority of my favorite shows with me even Attack on Titan. To which he agrees with me that Levi is the best thing to happen to that show and we hope that he doesn’t get killed off. He’s too badass for that to happen to him and I want him to be able to stand at the top of the mountain and survive through the war with Eren and his friends.” I smiled at the picture that I was painting in the back of my mind and pushed a lock of hair behind my ear.    


“So we know that Levi is your favorite character in all of anime within the last couple of years, but who's your favorite of all time?” Caitlin asked me as we reached the big car and I got in the way back seat next to Viki. 

“That’s the easiest question in the world for her, it’s Edward Elric.” Viki told her and I smiled at my best friend nodding my head.    


“It’s sad but true, he’s been my favorite anime character since I was eleven and FullMetal the original was my third anime before I even knew that Brotherhood was even a thing. Ed came to me at just the right time telling me that there was no such thing as a painless lesson. That they just didn’t exist and you can’t gain something without losing something first. He’s the person that I always saw myself as this confident, cocky even, headstrong, stubborn, intelligent, the height stature of an elementary schooler that I hate and so many other things. I wouldn’t be the girl in front of you today if it hadn’t been for the fullmetal shorty. He even is my favorite pop figurine in my rather large collection that I have displayed in my skating room. I also skateboard and surf a lot since obviously I’m from California even if I learned to do it in Hawaii on one of my favorite vacations with my dad.” I gave my explanation as to why my favorite shonen action hero was my favorite hoping that they would understand why it was that way.   


“Can you do his entire ending monologue? I’m sorry I know you just did a really big audition for this role but I’m really curious if you can do it.” I didn’t even notice that Caitlin was fiddling with her phone before I started.    


“There’s no such thing as a painless lesson… they just don’t exist. Sacrifices are necessary; you can’t gain anything without losing something in return. Although, if you can endure that pain and walk away from it… you’ll find you have a heart strong enough to overcome any obstacle.... Yeah… A heart made fullmetal.” I heard the ending click of a recording device that snapped me out of my moment.    


“ Were you just recording that? Why?” I asked her and she held up her hand I tried to peer over her shoulder to see what she was doing. I decided that the best bet would be signing to my best friend since we had taken a lot of ASL classes together and only we could understand it fluently.    


_ Vik, can you peer over her shoulder and see who she’s texting? I can’t see from over here and I want to know what she’s doing with it.  _ I know I was being obscenely noisy but I also wanted to know what in the world was going on and thought that it was my right since it was a video of me. Viki did as  I asked her looking at it before this smirk lit up er entire face.    


_ You’ll see later on probably tonight, other than that it’s not really your business but it’s a good thing.  _ I had really wanted to know what in the actual hell was going on but I decided to pull back from it.    


“Abby, that was really good!! You must have watched that show a lot in order for you to recite that off the top of your head like that. It’s rather amazing actually that a person can do that.” Brandon praised and I found myself blushing to the tips of my ears at it since I still wasn’t that great with praise as a whole.    


“It’s nothing really that special I mean it’s part of my social disease. I get obsessed with shows and then solely focus on that alone until it gets boring but a lot of them never really do. FullMetal was one of those shows that I’ve pretty much watched on repeat all throughout high school just bouncing around to my favorite episodes. I think that I’ve watched it all the way through around four times maybe in the last seven years. It’s hard for me to find characters that I relate to and who’s actions that I can understand but with that show I can understand where each and every one of those people are coming from. It’s rare for me to love a character as much as I do Edward but really when I sat down to think about it he is the best one to ever come to me when I needed him the most. It’s these characters that I grew up with and they stood by me no matter what. I know it sounds sad but sometimes the easiest people that I can come to trust aren’t even that real. I mean they feel real to me and now I sound like I’m insane Viki help me!!” I begged my best friend and she just laughed at me nuzzling her check with mine.    


“You’re so cute when you get like that!! It’s not weird or abnormal it’s just you being yourself and I think that’s one of the most beautiful things ever. It doesn’t matter what you say people will listen to you. Look at them okay? They’re hanging onto every word that you’re saying and not even caring that you’re babbling. You’re so self conscious of something that’s not even really an issue so just be yourself.” Viki was always the one that told me by myself with other people even though I was shy and quiet.    


“You don’t sound crazy to us!! And trust me honey we’re actors there’s nothing you could say that would make us believe that you’re crazy. One of us can do the perfect mad scientist laugh on command and loves to do it for crowds of people. We feed off other people even if we’re naturally introverts.” Caitlin encouraged and I smiled finally able to relax once I found my stuffed animal in my backpack.    


“She’s right Abby, we are probably the least judgy people that you are ever going to meet. Hell you’re my friend why would you think that I would judge you for something that you can’t even control?” Michael asked me turning his head around to fix me with a playful pout trying to look more childish.    


“Because well I don’t know, I’ve always been really self conscious that I talk too much because a friend of mine that I am no longer affiliated with told me that I did. It’s a problem that’s been there pretty much my entire childhood that I have to coupe with. Thanks for not telling me that I talk too much.” I pushed a lock of hair behind my ear nervously and leaned my head back against the comfortable seat.    


“Well that’s a really shitty thing to do, pardon my French. It’s not your fault that you get overwhelmed by the heat of the moment and your wordflow lessons it’s why I warn people whenever I do cons and so does Ian because the three of us tend to go on tangents.” I laughed at that because I had been around Ian during that con and he did indeed go on tangents it made me feel a lot better about my own speaking problems.    


“I don’t think that I have any room to judge anyways because I do the same thing. You said that you didn’t speak for a long time either right?” I nodded my head since that was actually really true people had thought that I was deaf for a really long time.    


“I had really bad ear infections before I was five years old and could get the proper treatment for what was wrong with me. I couldn’t hear anything and speaking was even harder for me to do but nobody knew what was wrong with me since the doctors at the orphanage were not the best. Once my dad adopted me he took me to a doctor, the best ear nose and throat doctor that I have ever had and I had surgery once I got adjusted to my new life and now I can hear perfectly. It was only after I had started talking that I realized I had a problem with stopping it now. My dad says that I get it from him since Donnie’s techno babble is definitely a real thing in real life because both me and my dad do it. Never ask him what project he’s working on it will only end in you being stuck in a chair throughout most of the entire afternoon. I don’t mind it since I understand everything that he’s telling the person so it’s entertaining for me but not for others. Pepper, his secretary and basically the closest thing that I have to a mother made the mistake of doing that once and she was down in our garage where he does all of his projects for nearly an entire day she just comes back looking like death and asks me what did I do with my day?” I loved to tell this story because to me it was absolutely hysterical since Pepper was usually so composed and very down to business with my father ever since that day. This was during her first week on the job and I think she was still trying to figure out the enigma that was my dad. 

“I’ll bet that you two could go at it for hours though, do you ever help him with his projects?” I nodded since a lot of the time if a project was giving him garbage he would come up to me dragging me downstairs so I could assist him with troubleshooting ideas.    


“All the time, my dad is often just stuck on one thing and this is probably where his ADHD comes into play which the jerk had to go and pass onto me f rom being around him so damn much and he’ll come upstairs to talk to me about maybe helping him on just about every project now that I am a college graduate. He loves to brag to people about how smart I am even if I’ve never really understood why.” Viki just moved the hair from my eyes and redid my ponytail for me a little bit higher so it would stay out of my face.    


“It’s because he’s proud of you honey, let him brag if he wants to. I’m sure that if I ever have kids I’m going to be the same way with them.” Caitlin just laughed at me and I couldn’t help the smile.    


“Well there’s always adoption which thankfully makes things ever but it’s also really hard to get all that paperwork filled out. I only got to go home with my dad so quickly because of the fact that he’s a famous person and we just clicked almost instantly as father and daughter. He really taught me a lot about my interaction with people and how to not be shy or be embarrassed by my hobbies. He thinks that my love of cartoons is awesome and always watches them with me. Sorry he was really excited about my eighteenth birthday and now it’s being helmed by my second father figure but it’s not the same thing. I was really looking forward to having another Stark themed birthday party. It was going to be this huge thing he had invited Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki and Misha Collins from Supernatural as well as David Tennant one of my favorite actors from the BBC.” I heard the car come to a harsh stop and I looked up at Michael for a moment.    


“Hold up a minute here, you had the option of having David Tennant, the tenth fucking doctor come to your party and he isn’t coming why?” I laughed at him knowing that was the thing that he was slightly salty about.    


“Well if he was coming than I would’ve invited you wouldn’t I? What kind of friend do you take me for? I’m kidding, I turned down all four of their invitations by logging into my dad’s email and computer before sending them replies telling them that the party was canceled which it was until Rob got his hands on it and started inviting all my favorite animation guys. I didn’t want to have this huge party where my dad wouldn’t be there running everything like only he can do. Maybe next year we’ll try to do the same thing if he comes back.” I smiled at my best friend as she leaned her head on my shoulder.    


“I was really fucking salty about it too Michael you weren’t the only one that was excited about meeting the actors. I mean it’ll be great because her coworkers from Rise will be there right?” I made the fifty fifty motion with my hand because Brandon had texted me telling me he would be there too around a week ago.    


“As far as I know three out of the five are coming, you’ll get to meet Josh though he’s the one that I work in the booth with their Donatello. Also one of our new favorites Ben Schwartz from over at Ducktales who plays Leonardo he’ll be there too he’s amazing. As far as I know Brandon is coming too he plays Mikey my second favorite turtle and the one that my dad teases me that I act more like. I’m a Donnie girl though it’ll always be that way and hopefully it stays that way since I don’t know where I would be without being able to relate to my favorite turtle.” I looked out the window hearing a buzz from my phone and looked down seeing that there was a text from Rob.    


_ Rob: How did the audition go? You can’t just leave your acting coach over here in the dark!!  _ I laughed at him as I texted back my old friend with a small smile on my face.    


_ Me: I don’t know how I’m going to tell you this but… I got the role!! I’m going to be Momiji Sohma in the reboot of Fruits Basket!! I can’t tell you if I get to be Shirise until tomorrow when I meet the ADR director of the show Christopher Bevins, he’s Michael’s best friend. I am so freaking excited!! I got to meet Matthew Mercer too!! Oh my god he was so nice to me!! He took the fanart that used to be on my apartment door when I lived with Viki and Mimi. They’re in town by the way so they’ll be here for the party. Viki is with me in the car right now that Michael’s driving. _

“So if you were to have a best friend in the industry aside from Rob that helped you the most in getting to where you are who would it be?” I thought for a moment trying to decide between Tom and Doug in the back of my mind before making my decision.    


“My best friend other than Rob who helped push me forward and got me into the industry would have to be Doug Lawrence. He taught me to be humble that you could have all the fame in the world but if you’re not a good person than none of that really matters anyways. He plays Plankton over on Spongebob if you didn’t know that. He gave up the fame and glory and let everyone else have a piece of the pie since he wasn’t trying to become famous. All he wanted to do was to lend his voice to a character. He always makes me laugh with his sense of humor and he’s flat out one of the nicest people that I’ve ever met in my entire life. He got my foot through the door really and truly and I had a small bit part in the last episode of one of my favorite shows Phineas and Ferb. It was hardly even a part but all the same when I heard my voice come out of a character's mouth for the first time I cried. I only had one simple sentence and it was seven little words but it was with those three words that made my heart full with all the things I could one day do. All I said was this has been a great day Phineas.” Viki only grinned at me as the car was parked outside of what looked to be a small family restaurant and I hopped out of the side.    


“Doug is amazing, I obviously grew up on Spongebob so once I met Doug and Tom my entire life had changed. They love Abby a whole lot and stuck by her side when she was struggling at eleven years old. Plus Doug got her to love Weird Al so that alone should get some massive credit since now he’s one of her favorite artists.” I laughed at the memory since it had revolved around hours in Doug’s car after school going through song after song as we just bonded over our shared love for the one man show. 

  
“Really? That’s not that surprising I can totally see you as an intellectual loving singing Weird Al. He’s an icon of the music universe and one of my favorites too. I’m guessing that your favorite is Queen?” I nodded my head enthusiastically at Brandon’s question wondering if it was really that obvious.    


“I seriously love Queen, we both do it’s one of those bands that you have to love in order to fit in. I grew up as a misfit so they really meant a lot to me since they were this group that really shouldn’t get along but somehow they just did. Her favorite of all time is Elton John though if you’re talking solo artists. She loves musical theater though too.” Viki replied for the both of us and I knew that we had the exact same tastes when it came to music.    


“It’s true, musical theater is my favorite type of entertainment aside from cartoons and films. It’s one of the many reasons why I love visiting New York above any other state because that’s where I can truly be the theater nerd that I am. My favorite musical corresponds with one of the best nights of my life, top ten easily and it’s the first time that I saw Spongebob Squarepants the musical. Instead of inviting his wife as his plus one to go with him Doug took me with him and I sat in between him and Tom just looking at this stage in sheer awe. It was one of the best works of theater that I have ever seen and I’ll always hold that bias towards it when people tell me it wasn’t really theater.” I followed everyone inside the restaurants where we were instantly seated at a large booth and I moved to sit in between Michael and Viki where I would probably feel the most comfortable.    


“I loved that show too it was one of the most incredible things that I have ever personally witnessed even if Mimi, she’s my girlfriend by the way, hates Spongebob even she had a great time and loved the music in the show. I think that she just thought that it was great because she’s an emo Panic! At The Disco loving ass and they wrote music for the show.” I laughed remembering Mimi sitting next to her girlfriend rolling her eyes at the sappy pureness that was happening around her.    


“I heard about that show and that a lot of people didn’t really like it that much and it closed only within a couple of months.” I sighed deeply looking at the menu to make sure that there were things for me to eat finding vegetarian chicken tenders that were used with fake chicken. I nodded my head since if I were to miss one thing from when I had loved meat it was these fatty little buggers. 

“I thought that it was because the theater needed to close down for refurbishments?” Brandon asked me and I nodded my head because they were technically both right.    


“It was because of that yeah, it just sucked because that was genuinely good theater. Even if I love Mean Girls, other than Barrett Wilbert Weed the theater community doesn’t really need it per se. I’ll always hold my personal grudges and that’s one of them. And the fact that Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, which was really good thanks to the man that is Christian Borle didn’t last that long either. It was a really depressing year for the theater side of my brain.” I joked as we all ordered drinks and I picked my all time favorite being a Shirley temple the sweet and sugary cherry flavored sprite drink that I adored.    


“She orders that at just about every restaurant that offers them.” I stuck my tongue out at Michael for that comment since they were one of my all time favorite drinks.    


“Oh my god, I don’t order it at every restaurant. It’s just that’s my favorite drink and I have only had it screwed up once and that was in Portland Oregon, never again by the way I was there with my dad on a business trip thinking what could possibly go wrong and everything went wrong. It reminds me of how I broke my ankle, Viki knows this story because it happened when I was in college.” My best friend laughed as she got her lemonade that she had asked for.    


“Oh dear god this story is absolutely hysterical, it’s just classic Tony and her working off of each other and this ended in the most absolutely horrific way you could possibly imagine.” I got myself ready to tell this hilarious story that looking back on it we both laughed at it since it was such an ironic thing to happen at the worst possible time.    


“So somehow I still had time to do theater during this quarter of high school and it was fall so the local community theater was doing Rocky Horror Picture Show one of my all time favorite movies. It was genderfluid like most of them were and I kept thinking to myself that I could have the possibility of singing one of my all time favorite ballads in all of musical theater, I’m Going Home. So I get home during our one week off that everyone got for their first fall quarter that the teachers use to keep up on grading and I had already been casted as Frank N Furter but I can’t walk in high heels so it was decided that I wouldn’t do it on the stage and just wore flats. But, my dad wouldn’t let that go unheard of so he goes out and buys me these huge ass high heels to try and teach me how to walk in them.” I gave a bit of the background on the story and Michael knew this one already but I could already see him nearly shaking with laughter.    


“So I wake up the next day and my dad is out at the kitchen table and tells me that he has a surprise for me. I of course got really excited because this had been my first day back and me being the stupid naive child that I was thought that we were going to Hawaii and I would be able to practice my surfing since I have a love hate relationship with surfing in California even though I’m warming up to it. He shows me these immense high heels and instantly I felt this anxiety creeping up my spine. I didn’t want to let him down though and when I saw that he would be doing it with me just watch…” Viki showed them the video of me twisting my ankle and my dad of course rushing to help me and get me off the ground. We were all laughing at the sheer idea that I couldn’t walk in high heels yet somehow got cast originally as this ultimate seductor of all genders. My dad found it hilarious that an asexual thought she could seduce people but in the end thanks to this injury I wasn’t even able to go on and do the show.    


“Oh my god, so you just fell over?! That’s so funny yet so awful at the same time. I’ll bet that you were really upset about it though for a really long time.” I nodded my head because Dumm-E was in charge of keeping me stable but had failed at that while my dad was videotaping the entire ordeal with Jarvis.    


“My dad’s robot Dumm-E was on catching me duty but the thing about him is that he’s not exactly bright it was my dad’s first attempt at a robot but at the same time I’ve never forgiven that stupid hunk of junk. I’ve tried to make me own robot but all I’ve made is designs for one in class and a model that didn’t really work out. Okay I think that I’ve done my fair share of talking, what about the two of you? Is there anything that I should know about the both of you?” I asked them kindly and they both thought for a moment as our food arrived and my stomach rumbled looking at the breaded vegetarian chicken. 

“Hmm… I mean we’re here so we can get to know you Abby. What about you? Is there anything that we haven’t heard about you? What about your film class? Was there any film that caught you by surprise there? Michael says that you wished you could have pursued that a little bit more why didn’t you?” Brandon asked me and I sat up a little bit straighter at the mention one of my favorite college classes.    


“Oh I really loved my film classes but there wasn’t really a whole lot that I thought I could do with that major plus I wanted to make my dad proud so stupid me at the time thinks that if I get the same degree that he did just higher he would be proud of me truly. I was immensely caught off guard by my film class, I took Introduction To Film and Classic Film where we watched the movies that were classic for each genre. That meant Citizen Kane which I absolutely adored, The Godfather that became my favorite movie of all time surprising my childhood favorite Beauty And The Beast and the second Godfather that me, Viki and Mimi watched and one of my personal favorite character study films of all time Psycho. That’s the biggest one that caught me by surprise I took this class my last quarter as just one for fun and most of them absolutely blew me away becoming some of my favorite movies of all time. The only one that I’ve seen only recently that I wished we would have watched there that I watched with my friend Greg Cipes who voices Beast Boy is Big Lebowski. I really should have pursued it further but by that point it was too late and I was one class away from finishing my doctorate.” I had fallen in love with studying film and if I were to go back to school I would get a film and acting degree and throw away my old one that was currently hanging up in my room at my dad’s insistence.    


“That is fascinating actually, I love all of those movies that you mentioned!! I’ve always been interested in the study of film but never thought to go all the way with it. If you were to put yourself in any anime where you want to be?” Caitlin asked me and I knew this answer right off the bat since this was something that I debated with the rest of my friends. 

“I would want to be a master and mage in Fate Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works, that’s my third favorite anime of all time and my favorite cosplay I’ve ever done is when I was Rin Tohsaka my senior year of high school for a local con that not many big names were at but I just had fun with it. I love the plot and the history of the holy wars it’s like FullMetal Alchemist but I feel like I’ve bored the three of you to death with that one.” I laughed rubbing the back of my neck as Caitlin’s phone buzzed and she looked down at it for a moment before smiling. She turned it to me so that I could read the text that had been sent to her as it was about the video unlocking it so that I could fully see who she had sent it to and the conversation previously. It was to Vic, which I shouldn’t have been that surprised since we were talking about FullMetal. I felt tears come to my eyes as I read what he wrote about me and Michael leaned over just to see what was going on. 

_ I met Abby back in December but hardly had the time to talk with her since Michael was basically glued to her side the entire time. It was rather adorable to see him acting like that with her. She was really shy with me and didn’t talk a whole lot I figured it was because she didn’t like me or my characters that much until the last day when she told me how much Edward had changed her life and helped her through her time of struggle. It was the sweetest thing that anybody had ever told me at a con. I wanted to talk with her more and it sucks she’s not going to be here for very long. I assume that you’re going to keep me up to date and let me know when she’s coming back? I know I’m not “allowed” on property right now but I just want to talk with her more.  _   


“You don’t have to if you don’t want to, I know that things are really confusing especially for you and people have blown this way out of proportion if you’re asking me. I’ve known him for over a decade since the original FullMetal and he’s not a bad guy in fact he’s one of the nicest people that you’ll ever meet. This doesn’t make him perfect but he’s not a pervert.” Caitlin assured me and I knew that in my heart that I wanted to talk with the man who used to be my hero more than anything.    


“I’ll meet with him, I know he’s not the perfect person that I built him up to be in the back of my mind and that nobody is. I was naive to think that he was without flaws but that doesn’t make him a bad human being like people keep claiming him to be. Whether or not he’s done what all these people have said it doesn’t matter. If he wants to talk with me he is more than deserving of the right. I’ll tell Mimi something to get her off my back since she can be really protective and she wouldn’t want me talking to him at all. She doesn’t make my decisions though and this is my own choice to hear him out.” I told them honestly giving her back her phone and pushing my glasses up my nose fishing the cherry out of my drink.    


“You know Abby, sometimes you can be way too nice. I can’t make decisions for you but if he does anything he is so going down.” Michael threatened and I absolutely believed his threats. He saw me as a younger sister and that was a very important thing. 

“She’s always been that way, ever since I met her back in her freshman year of college. We had this friend that was a flat out asshole to her at first, his name is Colton and he treated her as though she was higher up on the food chain and that she didn’t have to work as hard as the rest of us in order to get into MIT. When they worked together on a group project this one time they had to figure out their issues and actually became quite the dynamic duo together finding that they even had things in common. I kept expecting you two to start dating but when I met Jeremy I knew that was impossible for you to see any other boy in the same light as him. They were really good friends together though and did a lot of theater together in their free time. They would just lock the doors to the theater and work together on a dance in all these different styles. He eventually dropped out and started to pursue his real dream of being a Broadway star. When last I checked he was the understudy of Fiyero in Wicked still as a side job while at school. He’s that talent.” I smiled at the memory of the black haired honey eyed best friend that I had made through college who was basically everything that I wasn't. Colton was confident where I was the quiet one who preferred to be in the background but at the same time I knew that he would be proud of me. 

“He was a great guy and an even better friend once we got past our issues. We made a brilliant project together and even became one another’s dance partners whenever we wanted to relieve some stress. I drove up for one of my breaks to visit him in New York since he invited me for the first night that he was on for Fiyero and obviously because this was something that I claimed as an emergency. He was really good, he’s now the permanent Fiyero there I saw him in passing when I was in New York but we were too busy. I want to go back and visit him once the weather gets better since he’s my partner in basically everything. There was a time when I was convinced that Colton had feelings for me and he told me that he did but he was willing to put that past him when he saw how I interacted with Jeremy at my graduation party. He flew down from New York specifically for that after getting tickets to my talk about Howard Ashman that night.” I praised my best friend to the highest heavens and I would always do this. He had plane tickets for tomorrow actually and had emailed me earlier to tell me that he would be there for my eighteenth birthday.    


“I think that’s a really admirable quality that you can forgive somebody like that. I’m glad that the two of you became such good friends afterwards. Those are the kinds of people that will stick by your side for the rest of your life. Is he straight?” I shook my head because around a month ago he called me to say that he was actually bisexual this entire time and was too afraid to tell me for fear of how I would react.    


“He’s bi and currently single but has been looking for a boyfriend. He jokes that girls are too much work to be dealing with constantly. Colton is amazing I have to tell Jeremy that he’s coming he’ll be happy about that they actually really got along and I know that he wanted to talk with him but he was too busy signing autographs.” I leaned down pushing my food away and sipping my soda as I texted my boyfriend to just keep him up to date on what was going on.    


_ Me: Hey!! Sorry if I’m interrupting the Rick & Morty marathon just thought that I would keep you up to date on the fact that Colton is indeed coming down tomorrow for my birthday. He’s calling an Uber to his hotel so you don’t need to pick him up or anything just thought that I would let you know what’s going on with that. I love you <3  _

“Are you ready to get out of here kiddo?” Michael asked me and I yawned deeply exhausted after the long day as my phone buzzed instantly and I read what Jeremy had sent me.    


_ Jere-bear: You weren’t interrupting anything honey, how are things going in Flower Mound? I saw that you got the job I’m so proud of you sweetheart we all are!! I’m really loving Rick and Morty it’s a really great show. Oh hey!! That’s amazing I’ll look forward to seeing him again, he’s a great guy and he was a good friend to you when you were in college even if he started off being an ass.  _ I climbed into the car listening to everyone else just talking around me as my boyfriend and I texted back and forth since I was really tired and it had been a long day.    


_ Me: It’s going really great actually, I just wrapped up dinner with Michael, his amazing fiance Brandon, my ADR director the one and only Caitlin Glass  _ _ and of course Viki. I know and you know what? For once I’m proud of myself since I got this job mostly on my own Michael only showed me the door and I had to push myself through it to audition for him. I’m glad that you’re excited to see Colt he’s an amazing guy and one of the best friends that I think I’ve ever made. We would’ve dated but the timing was just never really right. I was so hung up on you and he knew not to overstep any boundaries.  _ I cracked my knuckles and yawned loudly.    


“I’m so dead tired Vik it’s been a really long and stressful day for me.” I told her as I laid flat on my back on the spare room bed that Michael had insisted we stay at in his house instead of me just walking down to the local hotel.    


“I would be pretty tired in your position too honey, which side of the bed do you want? You still a righty?” I nodded my head since we shared a bed sometimes before her and Mimi got together. I would wake them up from my nightmares sometimes when Abby Cadabby would fall from my grasp in the middle of the night. 

“Yeah I still sleep on the right side if that’s an option. Elliot sleeps on the right of my bed so then of course I take the left because he’s the guest.” I pulled out my pajamas running to the combined bathroom to change into my Rick & Morty themed pajamas that she had made for my birthday last year when I was struggling to get through my last quarter alive.    


“I’ve got to set an alarm because Christopher Bevins will be here early tomorrow so we can get back home before the afternoon. I want to meet up with Colton once we get there too.” I yawned snuggling under the covers since I had been up early this morning. I was awoken by my alarm at six thirty and reached for my phone and turned it off as Viki murmured that she wanted more sleep and I just chuckled at her. She could be so childish sometimes it was hard to believe that she was four years older than me. I took a quick shower to wash my hair since I hadn’t done that yesterday as I was in a hurry as I brushed out my hair seeing myself in the mirror noticing that I looked decidedly less disgustingly skinny lately and that made me feel a lot better than how it usually would. I heard the front door open knowing that it was time and picked out the nice outfit that I hoped would at least somewhat impress him that I was a respectable adult but also a huge nerd with my GIR dog hoodie since I had to have something related to cartoons or I wouldn’t be able to get through this alive. I picked out my sketchbook casually flipping through the pages and Viki rolled to face me with a small smile on her face.    


“You’ll do great honey, just give it your best shot and I’m sure that he’ll love you.” I nodded my head finding the artwork that I made for him and I showed it to Viki and she smiled at me.    


“It’s great!! He’ll love it that’s for sure, I’m going to do some homework while you’re down there.” I gave her the thumbs up nervously playing with the ends of my hair that I had yet to put up into a ponytail but I thought that leaving it down would be the best bet. I carefully went downstairs taking a deep breath to try and calm down my racing anxious heart.    


“Hey Abby!! Don’t be nervous alright, he’s a good guy and one of Michael’s best friends so you’ll do great I have all the faith in the world that he’s going to cast you in the show.” Brandon told me and I nodded my head with a small smile on my face as I put my hair up fingering the ends of the artwork that I had made for one of my favorite voice actors that often slipped under the radar. Michael saw me standing nervously in the corner and he only smiled at me shaking his head.    


“Abby, you can come over here you know that right? He’s not half as bad as I built him up to be I promise.” I took one final deep breath before going over to the couch where Christopher Bevins had been drinking coffee.    


“So you’re the girl that this one can’t seem to shut up about for the life of him? I’m Christopher Bevins his reluctant best friend that got him into the industry by dragging him kicking and screaming. Hopefully the same thing won’t happen with you.” He joked and I found myself instantly starting to relax since he was just how I had always imagined he would be. This sort of jokester that would either help you out or make fun of you and your patheticness.    


“Yes that would be me, I’m Abigail Stark it’s great to finally meet you. Trust me when I say that I’ve heard stories about you as well. I’m a huge fan of yours actually, I watched Hetalia pretty much to death and Japan was one of my favorite countries only second to a toss up between France and Italy.” I introduced myself to the actor sitting down on the couch that was a few seats away since I was still super nervous about this whole meeting. 

“Hetalia is my favorite thing that I think I’ve ever done it was just so much fun to travel and go to cons with all these crazy people that I worked with. You know that was one of Ian Sinclair’s first roles ever? You know, you can move closer I’m not going to bite. ” He joked and I found myself nervously as I was still moving towards the voice actor as I handed him the sketch that I made. I nodded my head excitedly at the question as I did move closer to sit in between him and Michael as he came back carrying a smoothie for me.    


“I have not forgotten that you love smoothies and that they used to be all you had for breakfast.” He gave me the drink and I smiled at my good friend for remembering such a minor thing about me. 

“I did actually know that about Ian, since Michael can vouch for the fact that one of the first things that the two of us did was go around the con saying different lines of his to try and see if people knew what it was we were referencing. Surprisingly there were less people to guess my personal favorite than I thought and that made both of us a little bit sad. I think too many people focus on the spain your butt your butt thing.” I laughed at just the sheer fact that we were indeed talking about this as Chris looked at his artwork.    


“You know this has to be one of the nicest things that anybody has ever done for me personally. Not many people watched Princess Jellyfish sadly so I’m glad that you gave them such a big focus here. Which one is your favorite?” He asked me and I hummed in thought for a moment before making my decision.    


“You know, more and more I do love my tape boy Sero. He’s by far my favorite male character in My Hero Academia since I just relate to the more goofball side of his personality. I think that he should have gone up against anybody but Todoroki in the sports festival since that fight had started and was over in the span of ten seconds and I would have loved the chance to see him be more badass in the future. I really do adore Princess Jellyfish both the manga and what they were able to do for the anime. Those kinds of quirky dysfunctional love stories are some of my all time favorites things like Fruits Basket obviously since I’m going to be in it but I also really love Ouran High as well because you can’t not be an anime fan and dislike that show. I could probably go on for hours about either of them but I’ll save you the torture.” I tried to make it a joke and he just looked at me gesturing to Michael.    


“You know who my best friend is right? He can talk your ear off about just about anything nerdy and I’ll usually listen. So and I’m asking for you to talk about this one because if we’re going to work together, what’s your favorite anime?” He asked me and I knew that this would only end with me being a babbling disaster in front of my possible future director.    


“Oh boy alright he’s pretty much asking for it now. I have a lot of history with this show and it helped me through arguably what I thought was the roughest patch of my life. I was eleven and just starting to get really into anime at the time with my dad who was in rehab for his drug problems that happened that year. One of the shows that we watched is still my favorite anime to this day and that show is FullMetal Alchemist Brotherhood. I consider my boy Edward Elric to be without a shadow of a doubt my favorite character in all of media. The journey that he has to go on was much similar to my own by the end of the fifty episodes. He taught me to use my wits and intelligence to move myself forward and to never let the past control my future. Ed means the world to me and he’s one of the few characters that I could always relate to no matter the situation that he was in. While I love other long running shows like Attack on Titan, Fairy Tail, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure and my second favorite action show the Fate series both Unlimited Blade Works and Zero there will always be this huge part of my life that I’ve dedicated to alchemy.” I started to go into rather vague details because I didn’t want to be here all afternoon and he probably had other questions for me that would involve more serious discussion about the future of A Place Further Than The Universe.    


“I actually wasn’t expecting that to be your first choice but now that I’ve seen you talking about it makes complete sense. If your so interested in animation and voice acting, and your such a good artist, why didn’t you pursue that at college instead of electronics and technology?” Oh the million dollar question of why I hadn’t gone the route that I wanted to during my years of going to school.    


“I mostly wanted to pursue the path that I did to try and make my dad proud of me. I wanted him to look at me with all my flaws and my social anxiety and say with pride that I was his daughter. Even if that meant sacrificing my dreams in return for something that would have made me absolutely miserable. It took him getting abducted by terrorists for me to finally figure out that he was always proud of me no matter what the circumstances I missed the opportunity to do a career in acting or so I thought. That was until my hero and acting coach Rob Paulsen, literally shoved me into a booth almost down at Nickelodeon studios to audition for a character that I created back when I was ten years old. I never thought that this would be my life. Sitting here in Flower Mound actually having a job at the company who dubbed all my favorite shows and getting to play a remastered edition of one of my favorite characters in all of anime. I still feel like I don’t really deserve to be here sometimes but I’m bound and determined to work my hardest and make my dad proud of the life I live.” I told him the story of some of my darker years away studying at college and just going through this internal struggle every time that I watched a cartoon or an anime thinking that was what I wanted to do with my life but not having the guts to go full throttle with it. 

“Your father would be proud of you Abby, because if I know anything about fathers it’s that they want their children to be happy whether biological or not.” Michael told me coming back into the room with his own coffee and his dog Ginji.    


“I know he even offered to pay my ride through to acting college or musical theater school in New York when a friend of mine Colton decided that was the route he wanted to go down and transferred all his credits over there. I spent so much time not wanting to let him down and having this goal in the back of my mind that only left me failing myself and my personality. Maybe when he comes back he’ll let me go back to school and just shred the degree that I have and start all over but I highly doubt it.” I pushed a lock of hair behind my ear but still felt glad that I was getting all this information off of my chest and out in the open.    


“If you’re asking my opinion, if he does come back you should still try and ask him. I was sent the demo reel of your audition yesterday and think that you have a ton of talent in your small five foot body.” I glared at Chris for calling me small and I knew that if we were in an anime, especially FullMetal he would be yelled at right now but I was too nice for that. 

“You know, I used to yell at people for calling me any variation of the word tiny when I was younger and still in middle and high school but once I found my outlet which was to yell at them like Ed did I felt a lot better and being called short didn’t really matter to me so much anymore.” I smiled at my group of friends that were around me even though I was struggling I had this feeling that they would always be there for me especially Michael. 

“In all seriousness I think that you’re a really talented young lady and that you could have a lot of talent in this industry since happy characters are rather prevalent especially the ones that bury their emotions deep down. I take it that’s your archetype that you want to stick with?” I nodded my head since that was the most relatable anime archetype to me as a person. I related to those types of people since I technically was one myself burying those feelings of sadness and instead focusing on putting on this happy show for any of my friends around me.    


“I mean it’s the one that I most relate to since I find myself doing that a lot. Putting on a show that most people just believe until I’m alone and then wallowing in self pity and my own loneliness since I’m not the best people person really unless I’m with someone I know. I think it all started with one of my favorite characters in cartoons when I was growing up Beast Boy in Teen Titans. He was the first one that really fit that structure that I was looking for and he means a lot to me. I could do other characters but I think that will be the one that I wind up doing the most.” I gave a bit more of my personality as Chris thought to himself for a few moments before making up his mind.    


“I do want you for my dub of A Place Further Than The Universe but not as the two that you were originally told you would probably get. I realize now that I should have met you before coming to that decision. I would rather you played Mari Tamaki instead. Would that be more your speed?” He asked me and I nodded my head with a small smile.    


“She was actually my favorite out of all those girls because I loved her happy nature and related to her the most. I would love to be her, this is going to be a crazy couple of months if people accept Liz into the cannon Turtles universe like I think they will. I’ll be down here though every couple of weeks for Momiji too so that’ll be fun. I’m not used to traveling this much but all the same I’m happy even if it means more time on an airplane as much as I would prefer to drive my car that would be a lot of gas mileage.” I laughed in spite of the situation just feeling genuine joy and happiness at the fact that my life even though it had hit rock bottom I was starting to find my way out of the hole I digged for myself. 

“I think that you would actually be an incredible Mari and not just because you look like her with the hair and the eyes and everything if they were blue. I know that you’re not a huge fan of flying and you’ll be doing even more of it once con season starts and you’ll be traveling with Kent and Justin. You’ll like Kent though he’s great he doesn’t do nearly as much work as some of the rest of us but a lot of people do love Hatori.” I listened as Michael started to talk to me about con planning and I had almost completely forgotten that I would be little miss traveler for that now too.    


“You’re going to be going all over the place that’s going to be actually really fun. Getting to travel is without a doubt the best part of our line of work. You’re already great with the press thanks to the lifestyle that you’ve had to live with for the last thirteen years of your life. I saw you on the news the other day, you did a great job roasting that reporter and your little dog growling at him was adorable.” My heart ached for the fact that Belle was probably back at home with Mimi splashing in waves with Wingman since Mimi had thankfully brought her car and I told her before we left that Belle really loved her doggie best friend.    


“You got a dog?!” Michael asked me and I laughed at him pulling out my phone and flipping through my photos to show them the picture of my dog. 

“One of my closest friends now and I can’t believe that I’m saying this but his name is Greg Cipes voice of Beast Boy a character that I loved when I was growing up and one of the many reasons why I stayed vegetarian. I was six and a lot of my friends thought that it was stupid. I met him for the first time early this month and he’s already become one of my favorite people. Rob surprised me by paying for a dog that I could have of my very own and I named her Belle of course. She’s this small golden retriever that I love to death and I’ll bring her with me next time. I’m not sure how much she’ll like the Stark Plane but I can’t keep doing this. I miss her.” I told them my story of how I got my dog flipping from picture to picture until I found one of her and Wingman.    


“Oh that’s Wingman, he’s Greg’s dog they’re really good friends maybe more but it’s mostly just really cute. He’s been really helping me with controlling my anxiety and trying to get me to find healthier coping mechanisms than the ones that I use already. He’s teaching mediation and I know how hippy that sounds but it’s actually really helpful and there’s a reason that I insisted upon showing it to kids when I did Sesame Street a few weeks ago.” I smiled at the memory of sitting with one of my favorite muppets showing him to control his breathing and relax even through his problems. 

“I was wondering where that came from since you didn’t seem the type when I met you but at the same time I could totally see that as something that calms you down. It’s getting you out of your head right?” I nodded my head taking a sip from the smoothie that was in front of me as it was strawberries and bananas two of my favorite fruits combined together. 

“I’ll need to watch it if I’m going to be working with you. You mentioned that you have a voice coach for Rise right? Anybody in the industry before?” I nodded my head enthusiastically full on ready to gush about my old friend. 

“So when I was ten my dad, my best friend and now my boyfriend Jeremy and Pepper we all decided that we would spend a few days up at the Nickelodeon hotel just for fun it was for my birthday. What I wasn’t expecting was for my dad and Jeremy to work together to create the biggest and best party for me. They had asked all the people that I admire in animation terms and told them to come up to the hotel for a few days. My voice coach is the one and only Rob Paulsen, he was one of my childhood icons of the industry he played Yakko Warner, the original Raphael, Donatello in the 2012 show, he was just this man that I admired and looked up to. He took my dream and helped me make a reality through hours of going through scripts with me and helping me become my favorite Disney princess Belle when I was thirteen for children’s theater at the community theater in Malibu where I was there for a summer camp. He’s helped me so much with the gaining of confidence to talk with people that I admire and just regular people too. He’s the exact same person that you would expect him to be and a massive prankster. He pranked me during my interview for Nickelodeon’s YouTube channel by drenching me with slime. As much as I love and respect him he can be obscenely childish almost to the point where it’s surprising sometimes.” I explained about my friendship with the man that I had spent a majority of my life idolizing.    


“He sounds amazing!! I’ve been a fan of Rob Paulsen for many years he’ll have to come down here with you at some point. Ten year old me would’ve been super jealous since I grew up around Animaniacs.” Chris told me and I smiled at my director who would be taking that job in a few months.    


“Well I’ll have to talk with him about it, I’m sure that he won’t mind he loves to travel. He pretty much adopted me as his daughter same thing with Tom and Doug so I have a really close friendship with all three of them. They’re insane but I love them at the same time like most of the people in my life. I would be an absolute stick in the mud without Rob’s profound influence on my life since he taught me to enjoy myself and have a great time with the life that I was given. I was a bookworm only focused on studying before he came into my life telling me that wasn’t the way that my childhood should be lived. He would take me to amusement parks, regular parks and we would just have a great time. I would consider him one of the best things to happen to me.” I told him about how much my friends in the industry meant to me it was the truth.    


“ They are actually really close, when they were at the con together they were almost always around each other. I thought that it was adorable that they would just be walking around the dealers room and how he offered to buy her most of the things that she picked up. We almost had to force her hand to let us each get one thing for her. Ian got her this Space Dandy penguin thing, Micah this figurine of Kirill, I got her this Okabe since she was cosplaying as Miyushi at the con. What did Vic get for you?” I smiled flipping through my phone to find the picture of the hoodie that I got from that con.    


“He got me this and it’s one of my favorite things in the entire things in the entire world. It’s a problem I wore it so much that eventually my dad hid it from me and I have no clue as to where he put it.” I laughed to myself rubbing the back of my neck nervously since this was kind of awkward topic but I loved that hoodie since it made me feel like the character that inspired me more than anything in the entire world. 

“You know I can totally see that happening. It was lovely meeting you, but I should really get going. Here, we’ll be in touch and I’ll for sure let you know the other actresses I get for the other female characters. You’re going to go places Abby and this is for you. Don’t open it until tomorrow though because that would be cheating.” I laughed at my new friend and gave him the hug that he wanted as he left the house and I felt a lot better about this whole thing knowing that I had the perfect job lined up. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi all!! I'm sorry if this chapter seems really short but I just wanted to get this done before finals were finished and I wanted to try and make up for the really weak timeline that I've been having between the updates. So if this chapter seems rather short and lackluster that's probably why because I wanted to get it out for all of you to enjoy!!

**Author's Note:**

> Hi all!! Sorry I've been rather busy with college and I haven't had the time to write for fun. Most of it has been garbage anyways and this might be one of those cases but this is a passion project. My favorite character in all of Marvel is Iron Man or as the world knows him Tony Stark. I've always wanted to give him a daughter and here she is Abigail "Abby" Stark. This is another one of those OC's that I've put a lot of myself in. Including, the amount of voice actors that will be in this story. I've had a massive love for animation since I was a little girl and all these people listed right here are some of my favorites *pulls out written list and clears throat* Rob Paulsen voice of Yakko Warner in Animaniacs, 2012 Donatello in TMNT, Raphael in the original TMNT, Tom Kenny which if you don't know who that is you had zero childhood he was Spongebob in of course Spongebob, the mayor in Power Puff Girls and Ice King in Adventure Time, Doug Lawrence one of my favorite cartoon villains Plankton in Spongebob and finally Greg Cipes who's Beast Boy in Teen Titans and Teen Titans go (I think that he's still one of the only good things about the remake) and 2012 Michaelangelo in TMNT. Phew, sorry if this story isn't for everyone it's mostly just made for me.


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